Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
![Loading indicator](/images/ajax-loader-bar.gif)
In this enormously engaging, vibrant, and richly researched biography of Albert Camus, the French writer and journalist Olivier Todd has drawn on personal correspondence, notebooks, and public records never before tapped, as well as interviews with Camus's family, friends, fellow workers, writers, mentors, and lovers.
Todd shows us a Camus who struggled all his life with irreconcilable conflicts - between his loyalty to family and his passionate nature, between the call to political action and the integrity to his art, between his support of the native Algerians and his identification with the forgotten people, the poor whites. A vey private man, Camus could be charming and prickly, sincere and theatrical, genuinely humble, yet full of great ambition.
The Paris that Camus was inevitably drawn to is one that Todd knows intimately, and he brings alive the war years, the underground activities that Camus was caught up in during the Occupation and the bitter postwar period, as well as the intrigues of the French literati who embraced Camus after his first novel, L'Etranger, was published.
Todd is also keenly attuned to the French intellectual climate, and as he takes Camus's measure as a successful novelist, journalist, playwright and director, literary editor, philosopher, he also reveals the temperament in the writer that increasingly isolated him and crippled his reputation in the years before his death and for a long time after.
He shows us the solitary man behind the mask - debilitated by continuing bouts of tuberculosis, constantly drawn to irresistible women, and deeply troubled by his political conflicts with the reigning French intellectuals, particularly by the vitriol of his former friend Sartre over the Algerian conflict.
Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
![Loading indicator](/images/ajax-loader-bar.gif)
Previews available in: English French
Showing 8 featured editions. View all 8 editions?
Edition | Availability |
---|---|
1
Albert Camus: Une Vie
April 2002, Distribooks
Mass Market Paperback
in French
2070410625 9782070410620
|
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
2 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
3
Albert Camus: A Life
February 17, 2000, Carroll & Graf
Paperback
in English
- 1st Carroll & Graf Ed edition
0786707399 9780786707393
|
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
4 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
5 |
eeee
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
6 |
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
7
Albert Camus: a life
1997, Alfred A. Knopf
Hardcover
in English
- 1st American ed.
0679428550 9780679428558
|
aaaa
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
8 |
eeee
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
Book Details
Table of Contents
Edition Notes
An abridged and edited English version.
Includes index.
The present book is abridged and edited English version of Olivier Todd's biography of Albert Camus, which was published in France in 1996. While all relevant information about the life and work of Albert Camus has been retained, some material not of sufficient interest to the American general reader has been omitted to improve the narrative flow. The notes at the end of the French edition have also been deleted. In order to keep the American edition an accessible length we decided to integrate necessary information into the text rather than including the extensive documentation of sources. - Translator's note.
Classifications
The Physical Object
ID Numbers
Source records
Scriblio MARC recordCollingswood Public Library record
Internet Archive item record
marc_openlibraries_phillipsacademy MARC record
marc_openlibraries_sanfranciscopubliclibrary MARC record
Library of Congress MARC record
marc_nuls MARC record
marc_columbia MARC record
Work Description
In this enormously engaging, vibrant, and richly researched biography of Albert Camus, the French writer and journalist Olivier Todd has drawn on personal correspondence, notebooks, and public records never before tapped, as well as interviews with Camus's family, friends, fellow workers, writers, mentors, and lovers. Todd shows us a Camus who struggled all his life with irreconcilable conflicts -- between his loyalty to family and his passionate nature, between the call to political action and the integrity to his art, between his support of the native Algerians and his identification with the forgotten people, the poor whites. A very private man, Camus could be charming and prickly, sincere and theatrical, genuinely humble, yet full of great ambition. Todd paints a vivid picture of the time and place that shaped Camus -- his impoverished childhood in the Algerian city of Belcourt, the sea and the sun and the hot sands that he so loved (he would always feel an exile elsewhere), and the educational system that nurtured him. We see the forces that lured him into communism, and his attraction to the theater and to journalism as outlets for his creativity. The Paris that Camus was inevitably drawn to is one that Todd knows intimately, and he brings alive the war years, the underground activities that Camus was caught up in during the Occupation and the bitter postwar period, as well as the intrigues of the French literati who embraced Camus after his first novel, L'Etranger, was published. Todd is also keenly attuned to the French intellectual climate, and as he takes Camus's measure as a successful novelist, journalist, playwright and director, literary editor, philosopher, he also reveals the temperament in the writer that increasingly isolated him and crippled his reputation in the years before his death and for a long time after. He shows us the solitary man behind the mask -- debilitated by continuing bouts of tuberculosis, constantly drawn to irresistible women, and deeply troubled by his political conflicts with the reigning French intellectuals, particularly by the vitriol of his former friend Sartre over the Algerian conflict. Filled with sharp observations and sparkling with telling details, here is a wonderfully human portrait of the Nobel Prize-winning writer, who died at the age of 46 and who remains one of the most influential literary figures of our time. - Jacket flap.
Excerpts
Links outside Open Library
Community Reviews (0)
Feedback?January 26, 2022 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
August 6, 2021 | Edited by New York Times Bestsellers Bot | Add NYT review links |
July 29, 2020 | Edited by Gustav-Landauer-Bibliothek Witten | person |
May 14, 2019 | Edited by MARC Bot | import existing book |
December 9, 2009 | Created by WorkBot | add works page |