In order to rise above the folly of existence, Camus theorized, one must first wholly come to terms with that absurdity and sense of hopelessness. As a writer, he consistently created protagonists who achieved an inner peace only when they had completely rejected the material world and all of its laws. Political ideologies were, to Camus, divisive and futile. As he wrote in his
Notebooks, "the revolutionary spirit lies in man's protest against the human condition."
Camus, who lived in France during much of his adult life, was feted both there and on the international literary scene. Though his reputation rose quickly, it also declined when he became the subject of lengthy, contentious diatribes in the French press, some of them penned by leading French writers who had once been his friends; many of them were harshly critical of Camus's political ideologies after he achieved success. Camus died in an automobile accident in 1960, three years after he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. Since his death, critics have reassessed his body of work and deem him one of the major literary figures of the century.
Humble Beginnings
Camus grew up in an impoverished, though not unpleasant, milieu, and his feeling of solidarity with the working poor and socially disadvantaged would infuse his works with a genuinely sympathetic moral attitude.
This is a free page. This page contains 199 words. This
biography contains 5,334 words (approx. 18 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Biography with our Albert Camus Access Pass.
