THE OUTSIDER
"I looked up at the mass of signs and stars in the night sky and laid myself open for the first time to the benign difference of the world." THE OUTSIDER ( THE STRANGER ) ALBERT CAMUS FIRST PUBLISHED : 1942 GENRE : Novel, Crime Fiction, Philosophical Fiction, Absurdist Fiction, Existential Fiction The Outsider (previously translated from the French, L’Étranger, as The Stranger) is Albert Camus’ most widely known work, and shows his understanding of Absurdism. Camus utilized The Stranger as a platform for this concept and his questions about the meaning of life. There are a number of elements that are of interest in The Outsider, but most significant is the issue of the protagonist, Meursault, and how he, and his story, represent the philosophies that are portrayed in the novel. Meursault, the major protagonist of The Outsider is shown as a self-absorbed man in the beginning but ultimately emerges to be a man of truth. Meursault lives a quiet life of routine, content with