The First Man

It is better to be wrong by killing no one than to be right with mass graves. -Albert CamusThis unfinished autobiographical novel comes to us nearly forty years after Camus died in a car crash, because, as his daughter explains in her introduction, his wife and friends were afraid to publish it at the time of his death. They feared that it would make an easy target for the increasingly numerous critics of Camus, who had gone from being an icon of the left, winning the Nobel Prize in 1957, to being a pariah, because of his principled stand on two issues: first, he refused to turn a blind eye to the Gulag and denounced the totalitarian methods of the Soviet Union; second, he refused to go along with the Algeria-for-the-Arabs climate of the times, calling instead for a sharing of power between natives and European colonists. In addition, the preoccupation with morality in his writings struck the intellectuals of his day as antiquated and quaint. Publishing a fragmentary work would have invited attacks on his already sliding reputation by a literary class which had turned on him for these myriad political reasons.The novel, which was actually found in the wreckage of his car, would indeed have been greeted with hoots and catcalls by the Left. It is the most sentimental and personal of all his works. The story of Jacques Cormery's return to Algeria and his reflections on his coming of age is filled with inchoate longing, for the Algeria of his youth, for the Father who died when he was just a child, for the love of a beautiful but deaf and distant Mother and for a moral code by which to live. It brilliantly evokes a distinct place and time and the happy memories of a difficult childhood. There are numerous vignettes that earn a place in memory--from the disappointment of winning a schoolyard brawl "vanquishing a man is as bitter as being vanquished", to the embarrassment of reading movie subtitles aloud to his illiterate grandmother. Taken on its own terms, the novel is a classic tale of youth and moral development. And in terms of our understanding of the mature Camus, it goes a long way to explaining the sense of alienation which pervades all of his other writings.His failure to toe the politically correct line is most evident in his treatment of the incipient Arab uprising. Here is what a French farmer tells his employees after he plows under his own farm: The Arab workers were waiting for him in the yard..."Boss, what are we going to do?" If I were in your shoes, the old man said, "I'd go join the guerillas. They're going to win. There're no men left in France."Not exactly a sentiment that's designed to ingratiate the author with either of the fanatic Wings of French politics, Left nor Right.But ultimately, the book is most important for the way in which it illuminates the author's life long attempt to craft a moral structure that will obtain despite his belief that life is finite, directionless and fundamentally pointless. The course of the Century has seen morality reduced to a bourgeois, conservative concern. An author, theoretically of the Left, who was so concerned with morality, was, and would still be today, a complete anachronism. The fact that sentiments like the epigraph above (It is better to be wrong by killing no one than to be right with mass graves.) were sufficient to earn him the enmity of the intellectual elites of his day, is indicative of the degree to which the Left has abandoned any pretense of moral reasoning, in favor of an orientation towards politically desirable results, regardless of the means used to arrive at those ends.The Myth of Sisyphus is the central metaphor of existentialism in the writings of Camus (see Orrin's review). Sisyphus was one of the Titans and, for his rebellion against the Gods, he was sentenced to roll an enormous boulder up a hill. Every day the boulder would roll back to the bottom and he would have to start over again. Camus used this senseless, unproductive task to symbolize all of human existence. Man is trapped in a life which never achieves anything, has no meaning beyond mere existence and leaves no aftereffects upon his death.It is ironic then that this greatest philosopher of existentialism, a life denying theory which inevitably leads to the Death Camps, should have written this beautifully life affirming work. As his daughter says in her intro, Camus would never have published such an open and honest novel, he would have masked his personal feelings. We are lucky he never got the chance, because what survives here, in a raw unfinished form, is his best work--a story which demonstrates that life is not tragic but rather that even a brutally difficult life of emotional isolation and grinding poverty can produce a great man like Albert Camus. That a life which seemingly illustrates his dictum about the harsh senseless nature of existence, should forge a man of such adamantium moral rectitude and that he, in this most revelatory work, should look back on those years with so much love and nostalgia, for me at least, puts the lie to the theory that existence consists of little more than Sisyphiphean despair and endurance.There is nothing absurd or desperate about the life that he portrays here; his accidental honesty provides an overwhelming argument against the very philosophy he espoused. And the capacity of even his impoverished and ignorant family to forge a Camus and the enduring influence of both his writing and the example that he set by speaking important truths demonstrates that man is capable of progress, indeed is continually making progress. France, a nation with much to be ashamed of, should be especially embarrassed that the best work of its best philosopher had to await the fall of Communism before friends and family felt that his reputation could withstand the revelation of this masterpiece. But then again, the fact that it can safely be published now is another sign of progress.GRADE: A+

IF YOU HAVE READ ANY OF THE BOOKS THAT MADE ALBERT CAMUS SO FAMOUS, THEN YOU WILL PROBABLY WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE MAN AND HIS LIFE. THIS IS IT. YOU WILL FIND THE SORROWS OF CHILDHOOD, THE LOVE OF FAMILY, AND THE INTELLIGENCE OF A CHILD THAT BECAME YEARS LATER THE AUTHOR OF WONDERFUL BOOKS .

This old classic (The First Man by Albert Camus), translated from the original French edition, tells the story of a young boy living in poverty and his trials and tribulations growing up, and how he deals with his father’s death and living with his deaf mute mother. The novel takes place in Algeria. An interesting bit of history on this book is that the author died in a car accident and this manuscript was found in his car and published later.I never give away too much information when reviewing any novel, but this classic book by the late Albert Camus is one you may want to check out.Rating: 4 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Martial Art and Warrior Haiku and Senryu)

I always wanted to read the First Man, Camus' unfinished novel found at the site of the tragic car crash that took his life. Even though unfinished, it is worth reading for the detailed, warm, and colorful accounts of his youth in Algiers. The stories of his poor family are heartwarming and real. It is a shame this novel was unfinished and it was expected to be much longer from his notes on where he was going with it. I get the sense that the love story part, which is not captured in the existing book, was going to be aimed at symbolically dealing with the left's criticism of Camus for desiring an Algeria where Arabic and French could peacefully lead the country together.Some of the writing in the First Man, dealing with his childhood, is some of the most emotional and heartfelt in all of Camus' writing. I highly recommend reading his unfinished book

This book, considered autobiographical and based on Camus' coming of age in colonial Algeria, was originally found as an unfinished manuscript with Camus' body in the car wreck that killed him in 1960. Perhaps because it was never completed, we are left with mostly vivid impressions as seen through episodes rather than a built-up sequence of events. Despite poverty at home the boy's talent is spotted and allowed to thrive at the elite lycée. What is striking about this book is the tranquility and naturalness of the Algerian landscape, offsetting an increasingly tense situation. There is the reality of fighting, of battles between the FLN and the French colonial interests, between the natives and the pied noirs which was not sustainable. The literature gives a personal dimension, showing that the reflexive love of the land you grew up on persists whether you are an Arab denied French citizenship for a century of rule, or a French national who calls Algeria home.

Unfortunately, this is not the edition that was advertised on Amazon. I had already started building my Camus collection with the Vintage International black and white edition (which is was what advertised) so I’m not sure why this is the copy that was sent. And it already had a few aesthetic flaws even though it does appear to be new.

First of all, knowing that this MS was discovered in the wreckage of the car crash that killed the author is sobering and impacts one's approach to this book. It is incomplete and, significantly, the last work by this great writer. In his typically spare prose, and with obviously autobiographical purpose, Camus begins with his birth and works forward into his youthful school years. I am thankful that I read it, and I shall read it again before long.

The world had to wait so long for this autobiography by Camus to be published. It was well worth the wait, and the book contains all the warmth and humanity attributed to the man himself. Camus was tragically killed in a car accident, and one can only mourn the loss of the riches the book would have contained, had Camus lived to complete it. Of all his books, I found this to be the most profound and the most moving.

Great book. Penguin books, well printed/reader friendly as always. And that's what matters while buying it online.

Un libro magnífico. Camus se nos presenta mucho más tierno que de costumbre. Tal vez es un libro menos estudioso pero mucho más humano. Los amantes de leer a Camus no deberían perderselo

Geboren als Franzose in Algerien, vaterlos in Armut ohne Chance auf Bildung unter dem harten Regime der Großmutter aufgewachsen, beschreibt er seine Kindheit als glückliche Zeit. Seine Freunde, seine Mutter, seine Lehrer, sein taubstummer Onkel, Meer, Sonne und Algier - bleiben sein "Sehnsuchtsort". Von Sartre wurde Albert Camus, vielleicht aus Neid auf seine mühelosen Erfolge bei Frauen, als algerischer Gassenjunge bezeichnet. Trotzdem lese ich lieber Camus als Sartre. Camus vermittelt eine vorbehaltlose Liebe zu allen Menschen und zur Natur, ohne sie ändern oder ihnen die Würde nehmen zu wollen.

Anyone who has read Camus' other works will relish reading this. For those who haven't, it's probably best to start with "The Outsider" and "The Plague" before coming to "The First Man".An unfinished autobiographical book, Camus leads us from his birth in the opening chapter, through his father's death to his own discovery of himself as the first man, looking around for a moral compass, the moral compass that guides all of his books.Towards the end of the book as it was left he writes: "he always was [ready] to lie for pleasure but incapable of doing so out of necessity." This provides a key of sorts to unlocking departments of "The Outsider", and is just one of hundreds of such enlightening comments littered throughout the book.But the book doesn't merely have value as a guide to Camus. It's not an author's lazy autobiographical book.The book emanates the smells and sounds of Algerian, the unbearable heat and the September rains. It is rich with balmy feeling that bring the hero's poverty-stricken childhood off the page in a way that has never been equalled.The Algerian weather is something that sticks out in "The Outsider" as Mersault walks along the beach and shoots an Arab, tormenting Mersault and driving him to his destiny, as if it were inevitable (inevitability is another idea that is explored in "The First Man").In "The First Man" he describes the summer heat as: "heavy, sweaty and roasting...even the memory of winter's cool and its waters was lost, as if the earth had never known the wind, nor the snow, nor light waters," linking it into another of his core themes: memory.Camus writes how memory is the reserve of the rich, and that the poor, as his family were, have no distinct memories as every day is the same, creating no distinct reference points for memory to stick to. It is this lack of past that connects back to his feelings of being "The First Man": robbed of a father by World War I, robbed of a guiding source in life.This book is an outstanding piece of memoir, despite never being finished. It is rich in the stuff of life, overflowing with passion for existence, just as Camus was, and stuffed with the keys to Camus' sensibility.

Great book. I wouldn't recommend reading this book before some of the other ones since this is Camus' final book and it was unfinished unfortunately.