preview

Albert The Absurd Camus Essay

Good Essays

Albert The Absurd Camus

“Albert Camus is one of the most likeable and approachable of the mid-twentieth-century French authors” (Brosman 10).This is quite a compliment for Camus, but most would agree. In France, Albert is known for his many books, two which have made the French best-sellers list. His works are often read and studied in French secondary-school class rooms, introducing a countless number of students to his pieces each year. Camus also holds the high honor of receiving the Nobel Prize for literature in 1957 (Boak 346). His wide popularity has made his name known in North America as well. Just what is Albert Camus so popular for one might ask? The answer would be his approach to his work— the underlying beliefs of …show more content…

Catherine was already illiterate and deaf when married to Lucien, but after hearing the news of her late husband became even more withdrawn from the world. She took her two sons to live in poverty with her mother and brother in the Belcourt, a division of Algiers (“Wikipedia” 1; Cruickshank 1). Albert loved his mother very much, yet did not feel his love reciprocated. The early years for Camus were lonely with the absence of his father and difficulty to communicate with his mother.

As Albert grew older, he attended lycée (term for secondary schooling in France) and the University of Algiers. At the university, he found a love for the sport of soccer. Unfortunately, his time as the team’s goalie was forced to end when in 1930 he fell ill to tuberculosis, a battle he would continually have to fight in his life (MacDonald 145). With this news, Camus turned to his studies, developing his literary career. Camus was particularly inspired by one of his university teachers, Jean Grenier. Jean was an advisor to Albert in his interest of literary and philosophical ideas (Cruickshank 1). Camus considered following his teacher’s footsteps and becoming a teacher; however, this career faltered with another episode of tuberculosis, causing him to not qualify for the position. He now turned his attention to a literary career.

Camus had many jobs as a writer. He worked for a political newspaper, where he could defend his homeland Algeria, to which he had a strong

Get Access