Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #106885 in Books
• Published on: 2000-12-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Synopsis
"The Rebel" is Camus's attempt to understand the time 'I live in' and a brilliant essay on the nature of human revolt. Published in 1951, it makes a daring critique of communism, how it had gone wrong behind the Iron Curtain, and the resulting totalitarian regimes. It questions two events held sacred by the left wing, the French Revolution of 1789 and the Russian Revolution of 1917 that had resulted, he believed, in terrorism as a political instrument. In this towering intellectual document, Camus argues that hope for the future lies in revolt, which unlike revolution is a spontaneous response to injustice, and a chance to achieve change without giving up collective and intellectual freedom.

Customer Reviews

Excellent treatise on the affliction of the rebel
This book explains why people rebel so well I've never understood myself better after reading it.All the motivation and emotions that can go through your mind if you are of a certain nature are explained here, as well as it documenting the history of dissent.If your an angry young or old person or have ever felt persecuted for what ever views you may have read this as comfort in your lonely hours.

Rebel - a review
My following of Camus began back in 1999 during a summer holiday camp in France, I had recently read the Manic Street Preachers' official biography and there were many interesting references to Camus and his work throughout the book. I eventually borrowed "The Outsider" from the local library, and took a days rest at the holiday camp to sit down for a few hours, and read. Before I knew it I had finished "The Outsider" and thouroughly enjoyed it, although this book could not come near to what I had experienced with "The Rebel", which I began reading a year later.

"The Rebel" was written to "understand the times" we live in, which was always a very broad subject to conquer in one seperate book. "The Rebel" is a seperate side to Camus' creative spectrum, this time with a more philisophical attempt at writing, although strongly iterates that this work is not philisophical, and he attempts to use no rhetoric or persuasion in his work. The ground covers in this book has a simillar vague feel to that of religeous book. In fact, Camus directs a more professional outlook to issues that are usually combatted through questionable metaphore or mis-directed philosiphy. Instead of using this method, he uses logic to prove or disprove people's theories or opinions, never once criticizing others through his own beliefs.

Slavery and leadership is one of the key topics combatted in the book, and displays how much of an important ascpect on our lives these roles play. He questions our reasons to rebel against our leaders, what lengths we'll go to, to make our stands, why we do it and what the possible outcomes are to the rebellion. He goes on to look at the spectrum that could be considered the spectrum of our places in life, addressing fascism and wars to nihilists and rebellions of the past.

Albert Camus offers no solutions, only options. This book discards the fictional creativity that people who have read "The last man" and "The Outsider" will have noticed, with literature offering his ideas. "The Rebel" is strictly in essay form, and describes so many aspects of life, always keeping to the main point "rebellion". Overall I found this book highly interesting (so much so, I have read it about 9 times since) and I'm sure any reader will appreciate Camus' ability to clarify such a vague topic, using masses of logical reason. I highly recomend this book to anyone with an open mind, or someone who seeks non-biased guidance on many aspects of life.