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The Just & The Possessed
Albert Camus se revelo al gran publico mediante una gran novela de pocas paginas pero largas proyecciones: El Extranjero; poco despues publicaba un ensayo mas denso de ideas: El mito de Sisifo. La notoriedad y el ascendiente moral de Camus crecieron luego con la novela La Peste y con sus obras de teatro - El malentendido, Caligula, El estado de sitio, Los justos y Los poseidos -, culminando en 1951 con El hombre rebelde.Asi, pues, en pocos anos, Camus logro una situacion de excepcional preeminencia, llegando a ser considerado - junto con Jean Paul Sartre - como la revelacion mas importante de la literatura francesa de posguerra. Su biografia puede condensarse en pocos datos: nacio en Mondovi (Argelia) el 7 de noviembre de 1913, hijo de padre frances y madre espanola, y murio en un accidente automovilistico el 4 de enero de 1960; vivio durante sus primeros anos alternando con varios oficios humildes sus estudios de filosofia; tomo luego parte activa en la Resistencia; en 1957 obtuvo el premio Nobel de Literatura.
- GenresPhilosophy
223 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1970
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About the author
Albert Camus
1,085 books38.4k followersWorks, such as the novels
The Stranger
(1942) and
The Plague
(1947), of Algerian-born French writer and philosopher Albert Camus concern the absurdity of the human condition; he won the Nobel Prize of 1957 for literature.
Origin and his experiences of this representative of non-metropolitan literature in the 1930s dominated influences in his thought and work.
He also adapted plays of Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Lope de Vega, Dino Buzzati, and Requiem for a Nun of William Faulkner. One may trace his enjoyment of the theater back to his membership in l'Equipe, an Algerian group, whose "collective creation" Révolte dans les Asturies (1934) was banned for political reasons.
Of semi-proletarian parents, early attached to intellectual circles of strongly revolutionary tendencies, with a deep interest, he came at the age of 25 years in 1938; only chance prevented him from pursuing a university career in that field. The man and the times met: Camus joined the resistance movement during the occupation and after the liberation served as a columnist for the newspaper Combat.
The essay Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus), 1942, expounds notion of acceptance of the absurd of Camus with "the total absence of hope, which has nothing to do with despair, a continual refusal, which must not be confused with renouncement - and a conscious dissatisfaction."
Meursault, central character of L'Étranger (The Stranger), 1942, illustrates much of this essay: man as the nauseated victim of the absurd orthodoxy of habit, later - when the young killer faces execution - tempted by despair, hope, and salvation.
Besides his fiction and essays, Camus very actively produced plays in the theater (e.g., Caligula, 1944).
The time demanded his response, chiefly in his activities, but in 1947, Camus retired from political journalism.
Doctor Rieux of La Peste (The Plague), 1947, who tirelessly attends the plague-stricken citizens of Oran, enacts the revolt against a world of the absurd and of injustice, and confirms words: "We refuse to despair of mankind. Without having the unreasonable ambition to save men, we still want to serve them."
People also well know La Chute (The Fall), work of Camus in 1956.
Camus authored L'Exil et le royaume (Exile and the Kingdom) in 1957. His austere search for moral order found its aesthetic correlative in the classicism of his art. He styled of great purity, intense concentration, and rationality.
Camus died at the age of 46 years in a car accident near Sens in le Grand Fossard in the small town of Villeblevin.
Chinese 阿尔贝·加缪
Origin and his experiences of this representative of non-metropolitan literature in the 1930s dominated influences in his thought and work.
He also adapted plays of Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Lope de Vega, Dino Buzzati, and Requiem for a Nun of William Faulkner. One may trace his enjoyment of the theater back to his membership in l'Equipe, an Algerian group, whose "collective creation" Révolte dans les Asturies (1934) was banned for political reasons.
Of semi-proletarian parents, early attached to intellectual circles of strongly revolutionary tendencies, with a deep interest, he came at the age of 25 years in 1938; only chance prevented him from pursuing a university career in that field. The man and the times met: Camus joined the resistance movement during the occupation and after the liberation served as a columnist for the newspaper Combat.
The essay Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus), 1942, expounds notion of acceptance of the absurd of Camus with "the total absence of hope, which has nothing to do with despair, a continual refusal, which must not be confused with renouncement - and a conscious dissatisfaction."
Meursault, central character of L'Étranger (The Stranger), 1942, illustrates much of this essay: man as the nauseated victim of the absurd orthodoxy of habit, later - when the young killer faces execution - tempted by despair, hope, and salvation.
Besides his fiction and essays, Camus very actively produced plays in the theater (e.g., Caligula, 1944).
The time demanded his response, chiefly in his activities, but in 1947, Camus retired from political journalism.
Doctor Rieux of La Peste (The Plague), 1947, who tirelessly attends the plague-stricken citizens of Oran, enacts the revolt against a world of the absurd and of injustice, and confirms words: "We refuse to despair of mankind. Without having the unreasonable ambition to save men, we still want to serve them."
People also well know La Chute (The Fall), work of Camus in 1956.
Camus authored L'Exil et le royaume (Exile and the Kingdom) in 1957. His austere search for moral order found its aesthetic correlative in the classicism of his art. He styled of great purity, intense concentration, and rationality.
Camus died at the age of 46 years in a car accident near Sens in le Grand Fossard in the small town of Villeblevin.
Chinese 阿尔贝·加缪
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 5, 2021
Maravilla de principio a fin.
December 22, 2024
Albert Camus was one of the truly great writers of the 20th Century and his prose always flows. I loved his play Caligula, which I read a few years ago, and I have long been on the lookout for his other plays. I pounced on this volume when I saw it in a charity shop a few months ago.
Both the plays in this book are set in Russia. They concern revolutionaries and the feelings evoked when one has committed oneself to a set of actions that are deemed unconventional.
The Just is the most straightforward of the pair. It's a fairly simple play and its theme and message are one and the same. The play is about taking action to eliminate a particular embodiment of injustice in order to kickstart a process that will eventually lead to a better and fairer society. It seemed to me to be a little melodramatic, a little bit forced, but I appreciated it nonetheless.
The Possessed is vastly more complex, with a big cast of characters, all of whom seem to be undergoing some strange existential crisis that involves lots of self-contradictory thinking and arguing. The play is an adaptation of a Dostoevsky novel. I must confess that I have never read any Dostoevsky (a big gap in my literary education) so I don't know how faithful Camus' play is to the spirit of the Russian author. This play is full of slightly odd incidents and the characters' reactions to these incidents are almost too easy to parody: they shoot themselves, they hang themselves, they pay criminals to assassinate other people, they hold secret meetings in which they plot to destroy modern civilisation. They are nihilists, but despite all their talking I am still not entirely clear what nihilism is. It does seem to be full of contradictory elements. That's all I feel I can say about it.
Camus is excellent, a marvel, but I think I probably could have lived my reading life quite happily without reading these plays. All the same, I did read them and so I can't really complain.
Both the plays in this book are set in Russia. They concern revolutionaries and the feelings evoked when one has committed oneself to a set of actions that are deemed unconventional.
The Just is the most straightforward of the pair. It's a fairly simple play and its theme and message are one and the same. The play is about taking action to eliminate a particular embodiment of injustice in order to kickstart a process that will eventually lead to a better and fairer society. It seemed to me to be a little melodramatic, a little bit forced, but I appreciated it nonetheless.
The Possessed is vastly more complex, with a big cast of characters, all of whom seem to be undergoing some strange existential crisis that involves lots of self-contradictory thinking and arguing. The play is an adaptation of a Dostoevsky novel. I must confess that I have never read any Dostoevsky (a big gap in my literary education) so I don't know how faithful Camus' play is to the spirit of the Russian author. This play is full of slightly odd incidents and the characters' reactions to these incidents are almost too easy to parody: they shoot themselves, they hang themselves, they pay criminals to assassinate other people, they hold secret meetings in which they plot to destroy modern civilisation. They are nihilists, but despite all their talking I am still not entirely clear what nihilism is. It does seem to be full of contradictory elements. That's all I feel I can say about it.
Camus is excellent, a marvel, but I think I probably could have lived my reading life quite happily without reading these plays. All the same, I did read them and so I can't really complain.
November 11, 2024
loved it.
reminded me of Moriarty the Patriot.
reminded me of Moriarty the Patriot.
June 30, 2025
Obra de teatro favorita hasta la fecha. Albert Camus>>>
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March 26, 2010The Possessed by Albert Camus (1964)
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January 26, 2016ISBN: 950-03-0614-x
324 p.
324 p.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews