The History of Literature #224 – Albert Camus

Albert Camus (1913-1960) was born in Algeria to French parents. After his father died in World War I, when Albert was still an infant, the family was reduced to impoverished circumstances, forced to move in with relatives in an apartment without electricity or running water.

From these humble beginnings, Camus went on to become one of the most famous and celebrated writers in the world, winning the Nobel Prize for Literature at the improbably young age of 44. In this episode of the History of Literature, we look at his works, including The Stranger and The Plague; his entanglement with the existentialists (a label he rejected); the analysis of his works by Jean-Paul Sartre; and the three possible philosophical responses to humanity’s essentially absurd condition.

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Music Credits:

“Parisian” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Writers Laughing: A Jacke Wilson Gallery

Peace on earth, good will to all…and a photo gallery of great writers caught in the act of laughing.  Happy holidays!

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Join us on the History of Literature podcast or at the Jacke Wilson blog for more literary delights.

All image credits available on jackewilson.com

 

Top Ten Writers Laughing: The Very Best!

Okay, we already looked at numbers 10 through 6. Let’s take a look at the top five from our very popular Writers Laughing series. Away we go!

Number 5: Kurt Vonnegut and John Irving

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Number 4: Samuel Beckett

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Number 3: Flannery O’Connor

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Number 2: George Orwell (this was close – he was overtaken on the final day!)

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And the number 1 Writers Laughing are…

Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir!

Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoirjp and sdbjp and sdb2

Congratulations, winners! Now everyone, let’s all try to make laughter part of our day today. Come on! We can do it!

Note: Commentary and image credits are on the original links.

Writers Laughing: Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir

jp and sdb

Love this. What are they laughing about? We don’t know. But there’s also this: Continue reading