(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) From one of the most brilliant
and influential thinkers of the twentieth century-two novels, six
short stories, and a pair of essays in a single volume. In both his
essays and his fiction, Albert Camus (1913--1960) de-ployed his
lyric eloquence in defense against despair, providing an
affirmation of the brave assertion of humanity in the face of a
universe devoid of order or meaning. "The Plague"-written in 1947
and still profoundly relevant-is a riveting tale of horror,
survival, and resilience in the face of a devastating epidemic.
The Fall" (1956), which takes the form of an astonishing
confession by a French lawyer in a seedy Amsterdam bar, is a
haunting parable of modern conscience in the face of evil. The six
stories of "Exile and the Kingdom "(1957) represent Camus at the
height of his narrative powers, masterfully depicting his
characters-from a renegade missionary to an adulterous wife -at
decisive moments of revelation. Set beside their fictional
counterparts, Camus's famous essays "The Myth of Sisyphus" and
Reflections on the Guillotine" are all the more powerful and
philosophically daring, confirming his towering place in
twentieth-century thought.