Synopsis
Meursault leads an apparently unremarkable bachelor life in
Algiers until he commits a random act of violence. His lack of
emotion and failure to show remorse only serve to increase his
guilt in the eyes of the law, and challenges the fundamental values
of society a set of rules so binding that any person breaking them
is condemned as an outsider. For Meursault, this is an insult to
his reason and a betrayal of his hopes; for Camus it encapsulates
the absurdity of life. In "The Outsider" (1942), his classic
existentialist novel, Camus explores the predicament of the
individual who refuses to pretend and is prepared to face the
indifference of the universe, courageously and alone.