The First Man - Hardcover

Albert Camus

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0241134951 ISBN 13: 9780241134955

Publisher: Hamish Hamilton, 1995

Synopsis

Told as a novel, this is a moving account of the author's poverty-stricken childhood in Algeria, the love of his mother and the old schoolteacher who saved him from ignorance. The book acts as a novel on Algeria, on the relationship between man and the land, and between French and Arabs.

About this title

About the Author

Albert Camus was born in Algeria in 1913. His childhood was poor but not unhappy. He studied philosophy at the University of Algiers and became a journalist. After the occupation of France by the Germans in 1941, Camus became one of the intellectual leaders of the resistance movement. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. He was killed in a road accident in 1960. His novels include THE OUTSIDER, THE PLAGUE and THE REBEL.

From the Inside Flap

Camus tells the story of Jacques Cormery, a boy who lived a life much like his own. Camus summons up the sights, sounds and textures of a childhood circumscribed by poverty and a father's death yet redeemed by the austere beauty of Algeria and the boy's attachment to his nearly deaf-mute mother. Published thirty-five years after its discovery amid the wreckage of the car accident that killed Camus, The First Man is the brilliant consummation of the life and work of one of the 20th century's greatest novelists. Translated from the French by David Hapgood.

"The First Man is perhaps the most honest book Camus ever wrote, and the most sensual...Camus is...writing at the depth of his powers...It is a work of genius."--The New Yorker

"Fascinating...The First Man helps put all of Camus's work into a clearer perspective and brings into relief what separates him from the more militant literary personalities of his day...Camus's voice has never been more personal."--New York Times Book Review

Edition details

• Publisher: Hamish Hamilton
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0241134951
• ISBN 13: 9780241134955
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272
• Editor: Catherine Camus