Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18928 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-06
• Original language: French
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

About the Author
Albert Camus was born in Algeria in 1913. His childhood was poor, although not unhappy. He studied philosophy at the University of Algiers, and became a journalist as well as organizing the Théâtre de l'équipe, a young avant-garde dramatic group. His early essays were collected in L'Envers et l'endroit (The Wrong Side and the Right Side) and Noces (Nuptials). He went to Paris, where he worked on the newspaper Paris Soir before returning to Algeria. His play, Caligula, appeared in 1939. His first two important books, L'Etranger (The Outsider) and the long essay Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus), were published when he returned to Paris. After the occupation of France by the Germans in 1941, Camus became one of the intellectual leaders of the Resistance movement. He edited and contributed to the underground newspaper Combat, which he had helped to found. After the war he devoted himself to writing and established an international reputation with such books as La Peste, (The Plague; 1947), Les Justes, (The Just; 1949) and La Chute (The Fall; 1956).

Customer Reviews

Camus deserves better editing than this
Penguin have taken their liberties in making unnecessary edits of this book. As they excuse themselves: "Unfortunately in the interest of economy certain pages relating to some of these figures have been deleted in the English edition."

On pages 198 - 199 there's a supposed quote from Lenin's lecture 'The State' of which the first two sentences are authentic, and the remainder are Camus's sarcastic commentary on them. This distinction is not visible in the Penguin edition.

These are just 2 examples. I give this book 1 star. Not because of Camus', whose writing would deserve far better, but because of Penguin's editing. Buy another edition!

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.

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.