The Outsider
The first sentence of "The Outsider"/"The Stranger" (from the French L’Étranger) is one of the most catching and enigmatic of the first sentences I have read, but what caught me more was the last part of the last sentence of the book.
(...) my last wish was that there sould be a crowd of spectators at my execution and that they should greet me with cries of hatred.
The 'weirdness' of the sentence summarises the tone and depth of Albert Camus's novel, often classified as existential. The novel examines the life of Meursault who ends up committing a murder and is waiting to be executed. During the trial he seems to be persecuted more for not feeling sorrow that his mother has passed away recently or that he had not cried at the funeral, an entirely normal occurrence as far as Meursaulti is concerned, than for killing a man.
It is one of those classic novels that has been analysed and reviewed to death and I am not going to add to that list. "The Outsider" seems to be one of those books (like "Atlas Shrugged") that formed the staple diet of boys and girls during their growing up phase. I seemed to have missed that boat and am strangely thankful for it because it is one of the books that seems to grow deeper with age. While "The Outsider" has not had the effect of converting me to existentialism, it sure has given me an opportunity to think of its philosophical stance.
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