Albert Camus was a French Existentialist and is a part of the big baddies of existentialism, along with the likes of Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and Sartre to name a few.
Often people are confused about how to engage with Camus’ works, considering the number of books he’s written. So here’s a concise recommendation on how to read Camus along with handpicked external resources to aid your reading.
Introduction
Camus’ work should be treated like that of other philosophers and should be given sufficient time and energy. Thus, although it is completely fine to directly jump into his works. I’d recommend starting with an introductory book, so as to understand the man, his background, and his thoughts that went behind while he was establishing his major concepts like that of Absurdism.
The book I’d recommend is ‘Introducing Camus: A Graphic Guide’ by David Zane Mairowitz.
Then here are a few introductory videos that could help you:
His Works
This is my recommended reading order (you need not necessarily follow it, but I found it be most efficient way of understanding his works and I wish I knew this earlier)
- The Stranger
The stranger is Camus’ most famous works. It has one of the most chilling opening lines in the history of literature. Here are a few videos that will aid your reading:
2. The Fall
I read the fall 2 years back and I’ve got to say, it’s a small book but yet it’s a chilling piece of literature. It consists of a monologue like writing, set in Amsterdam. You’re gonna love this one. Unfortunately, it’s not one of his most renowned works.
3. The Plague
With the pandemic going on, you must’ve heard about ‘The Plague’. It is a daunting piece of work. It involves a plague, obviously, but this plague is not symbolic of any particular plague that’s occurred but Camus rather studied different plagues to write this one. This book has one of the most dramatic and chilling endings, it’s my favorite ending. Not gonna spoil it for y’all. So here are the resources:
4. The Myth of Sisyphus
The last one for our ‘Essential Camus’ is one of his most renowned works, the crux of his philosophy, where we get to see the most famous lines — “one must imagine Sisyphus happy”. The reason why I’ve put this after his fictional works is so that you can relate to the different characters and remember them while reading this one. It gives you a visual understanding of the myth of Sisyphus.
I've mentioned only four books and that’s because I think these four books capture the essence of his philosophy pretty well four our busy readers. If you want still to learn further then you should go ahead and read his other works like Create Dangerously, Exile and Kingdom, A Happy Death, The Rebel, etc. You should even read his ‘notebooks’.
Extra
Here are a few resources to aid your understanding of Camus, absurdism, and existentialism in general.