Camus biography. Albert Camus - famous French writer and philosopher

Albert Camus born on November 7, 1913 in Algeria, in the family of an agricultural worker. He was not even a year old when his father died in First World War. After the death of his father, Albert's mother suffered a stroke and became semi-mute. Camus' childhood was very difficult.

In 1923, Albert entered the Lyceum. He was a capable student and was actively involved in sports. However, after the young man fell ill with tuberculosis, he had to give up the sport.

After the Lyceum future writer entered the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Algiers. Camus had to work hard to be able to pay for his studies. In 1934, Albert Camus married Simone Iye. The wife turned out to be a morphine drug addict, and the marriage with her did not last long.

In 1936, the future writer received a master's degree in philosophy. Just after receiving his diploma, Camus experienced an exacerbation of tuberculosis. Because of this, he did not stay in graduate school.

To improve his health, Camus went on a trip to France. He outlined his impressions from the trip in his first book, “The Inside Out and the Face” (1937). In 1936, the writer began work on his first novel, “Happy Death.” This work was published only in 1971.

Camus very quickly gained a reputation as a major writer and intellectual. He not only wrote, but was also an actor, playwright, and director. In 1938, his second book, “Marriage,” was published. At this time, Camus was already living in France.

During German occupation France writer took Active participation in the Resistance movement, he also worked for the underground newspaper "Battle", which was published in Paris. In 1940, the story “The Stranger” was completed. This poignant work brought the writer world fame. Next came the philosophical essay “The Myth of Sisyphus” (1942). In 1945, the play "Caligula" was published. In 1947, the novel “The Plague” appeared.

Philosophy of Albert Camus

Camus was one of the most prominent representatives existentialism. His books convey the idea of ​​the absurdity of human existence, which in any case will end in death. IN early works("Caligula", "The Stranger") the absurdity of life leads Camus to despair and immoralism, reminiscent of Nietzscheanism. But in “The Plague” and subsequent books the writer insists: the general tragic fate should generate in people a feeling of mutual compassion and solidarity. The goal of the individual is “to create meaning among the universal nonsense”, “to overcome human lot, drawing within himself the strength that he had previously sought outside.”

In the 1940s Camus became close friends with another prominent existentialist, Jean-Paul Sartre. However, due to serious ideological differences, the moderate humanist Camus broke with the communist radical Sartre. In 1951 a major philosophical essay Camus “The Rebel Man”, and in 1956 - the story “The Fall”.

In 1957, Albert Camus was awarded Nobel Prize"for his enormous contribution to literature, highlighting the importance of human conscience."

Albert Camus was born on November 7, 1913 in Algeria into a fairly simple family. Father, Lucien Camus, was the caretaker of a wine cellar. He died during the war; at that time, Albert was not even a year old. Mother, Catherine Santes, was an illiterate woman and after the death of her husband she was forced to move in with relatives and become a servant in order to somehow provide for the family.

Childhood and youth

Despite an extremely difficult childhood, Albert grew up as an open, kind child, capable of feeling and loving nature.

He graduated with honors from primary school and continued his studies at the Algiers Lyceum, where he became interested in the works of such authors as M. Proust, F. Nietzsche, A. Malraux. F.M. also read with enthusiasm. Dostoevsky.

During his studies, a significant meeting took place with the philosopher Jean Grenier, who later influenced the development of Camus as a writer. Thanks to a new acquaintance, Camus discovers religious existentialism and shows interest in philosophy.

The beginning of his creative path and famous sayings of Camus

1932 is associated with entering the university. At this time, the first publications of notes and essays appeared, in which the influence of Proust, Dostoevsky, and Nietzsche was clearly visible. This is how it begins creative path one of the most famous writers XX century. A collection was published in 1937 philosophical reflections "Inside and Face", in which lyrical hero seeks to hide from the chaos of existence and find peace in the wisdom of nature.

1938 to 1944 are conventionally considered the first period in the writer’s work. Camus works for the underground newspaper Combat, which he himself headed after liberation from the German occupation. Dramas are released at this time "Caligula"(1944), story "Stranger"(1942). The book ends this period "The Myth of Sisyphus".

“All people in the world are chosen ones. There are no others. Sooner or later everyone will be convicted and sentenced.”

“I have often thought: if I were forced to live in the trunk of a dried-up tree, and could do nothing at all except watch the sky bloom overhead, I would gradually get used to it.”
"The Stranger", 1942 - Albert Camus, quote

"Any man of sense, one way or another, has ever wished death on those he loves.”
"The Stranger", 1942 - Albert Camus, quote

“Everything begins with consciousness and nothing else matters.”
"The Myth of Sisyphus", 1944 - Albert Camus, quote

In 1947, a new, largest and, perhaps, most powerful prose work was published. work by Camus, novel "Plague". One of the events that influenced the progress of work on the novel was the second World War. Camus himself insisted on many readings of this book, but still singled out one.

In a letter to Roland Barthes about The Plague, he says that the novel is a symbolic reflection of the struggle of European society against Nazism.

“Anxiety is a slight aversion to the future”
"The Plague", 1947 - Albert Camus, quote

"IN usual time We all, conscious of it or not, understand that there is love for which there are no limits, and nevertheless we agree, and even quite calmly, that our love is, in essence, second-class. But human memory is more demanding.” "The Plague", 1947 - Albert Camus, quote

“The evil that exists in the world is almost always the result of ignorance, and any good will can cause as much damage as evil, unless that good will is not sufficiently enlightened.
"The Plague", 1947 - Albert Camus, quote"

The first mention of the novel appears in Camus’s notes in 1941 under the title “Plague or Adventure (novel),” at which time he began studying specialized literature on the topic.

It should be noted that the first drafts of this manuscript differ significantly from final version, as the novel was written, its plot and some descriptions changed. Many details were noticed by the author during his stay in Oran.

The next work to see the light is "Rebel Man"(1951), where Camus explores the origin of man's resistance against the internal and environmental absurdity of existence.

In 1956, the story appears "A fall", and a year later a collection of essays is published "Exile and Kingdom".

The reward has found a hero

In 1957, Albert Camus received the Nobel Prize “for his enormous contribution to literature, highlighting the importance of human conscience.”

In his speech, which would later be called the “Swedish Speech,” Camus said that “he was too tightly chained to the galley of his time not to row with others, even believing that the galley stank of herring, that there were too many overseers on it, and that, above all, the wrong course has been taken."

He was buried in the cemetery at Lourmarin in the south of France.

Film based on the book by Olivier Todd “Albert Camus, a Life” - VIDEO

Albert Camus - French writer and a philosopher close to existentialism received common noun during his lifetime "Conscience of the West". Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957 "for his enormous contribution to literature, highlighting the importance of human conscience."

Years of life: from 07.11.1913 to 04.01.1960

French writer and philosopher, existentialist, Nobel Prize winner in literature.

Albert Camus was born on November 7, 1913 in Algeria, on the San Pol farm near the town of Mondovi. When the writer's father died in the Battle of the Marne at the beginning of the First World War, his mother moved with the children to the city of Algiers.

In Algeria after graduation primary school Camus studies at the Lyceum, where he was forced to interrupt his studies for a year in 1930 due to tuberculosis.

In 1932-1937 studied at the University of Algiers, where he studied philosophy. On the advice of Grenier at the university, Camus began keeping diaries and writing essays, influenced by the philosophy of Dostoevsky and Nietzsche. During his senior years at the university, he became interested in socialist ideas and in the spring of 1935 joined the French Communist Party and conducts propaganda activities among Muslims. He was a member of the local branch of the French Communist Party for more than a year, until he was expelled for connections with the Algerian People's Party, accusing him of “Trotskyism.”

In 1937, Camus graduated from the university, defending thesis in philosophy on the topic "Christian metaphysics and Neoplatonism." Camus wanted to continue his academic activities, but due to health reasons he was denied postgraduate studies, for the same reason he was later not drafted into the army.

After graduating from university, Camus briefly headed the Algiers House of Culture and then headed some left-wing opposition newspapers that were closed by military censorship after the outbreak of World War II. During these years, Camus wrote a lot, mainly essays and journalistic materials. In January 1939, the first version of the play “Caligula” was written.

Having lost his job as an editor, Camus moved with his wife to Oran, where they earned a living by giving private lessons, and at the beginning of the war he moved to Paris.

In May 1940, Camus completed work on the novel The Stranger. In December, Camus, not wanting to live in an occupied country, returned to Oran, where he taught French V private school. In February 1941, The Myth of Sisyphus was completed.

Soon Camus joined the ranks of the Resistance Movement, became a member of the underground organization Combat, and returned to Paris.

In 1943, he met and participated in productions of his plays (in particular, it was Camus who first uttered the phrase “Hell is others” from the stage).

After the end of the war, Camus continued to work at Combat; his previously written works were published, which brought the writer popularity, but in 1947 his gradual break with the leftist movement and personally with Sartre began. As a result, Camus leaves Combe and becomes an independent journalist - he writes journalistic articles for various publications (later published in three collections called “Topical Notes”).

In the fifties, Camus gradually abandoned his socialist ideas, condemns the policies of Stalinism and the connivance of the French socialists towards this, which leads to an even greater break with former comrades and, in particular, with Sartre.

At this time, Camus became increasingly fascinated by the theater; in 1954, the writer began staging plays based on his own dramatizations, and was negotiating the opening of the Experimental Theater in Paris. In 1956, Camus wrote the story "The Fall", on next year A collection of short stories, “Exile and the Kingdom,” is published.

In 1957, Camus received the Nobel Prize for Literature. In his acceptance speech, he said that he was “too firmly chained to the galley of his time not to row with others, even though he believed that the galley stank of herring, that it had too many overseers and that, above all, it had taken the wrong course.” In recent years life of Camus I wrote practically nothing.

On January 4, 1960, Albert Camus died in a car accident while returning from Provence to Paris. The writer died instantly. The writer's death occurred at approximately 13:54. Michel Gallimard, who was also in the car, died in hospital two days later, but the writer's wife and daughter survived. . Albert Camus was buried in the town of Lourmarin in the Luberon region in the south of France. In November 2009, French President Nicolas Sarkozy proposed transferring the writer's ashes to the Pantheon.

In 1936, Camus created an amateur " People's Theater", organized, in particular, a production of The Brothers Karamazov based on Dostoevsky, where he himself played Ivan Karamazov.

Writer's Awards

1957 - in literature “For his enormous contribution to literature, highlighting the importance of human conscience”

Bibliography

(1937)
(1939)
(1942)
(1942)
(1944]early edition – 1941)
Misunderstanding (1944)
(1947)
State of Siege (1948)
Letters to a German friend(1948) under the pseudonym Louis Nieuville)
The Righteous (1949)
Topical Notes, Book 1 (1950)
(1951)
Topical Notes, Book 2 (1953)
Summer (1954)
(1956)
Requiem for a Nun (1956) adaptation of the novel by William Faulkner)
Exile and Kingdom (1957)
(1957)
Topical Notes, Book 3 (1958)
Demons (1958) adaptation of the novel by F. M. Dostoevsky)
Diaries, May 1935 - February 1942
Diaries, January 1942 - March 1951
Diaries, March 1951 - December 1959
Happy death (1936-1938)

Film adaptations of works, theatrical performances

1967 - The Outsider (Italy, L. Visconti)
1992 - Plague
1997 - Caligula
2001 - Fate (based on the novel "The Outsider", Türkiye)

Name: Albert Camus

Age: 46 years old

Activity: writer, philosopher

Family status: was married

Albert Camus: biography

French writer, essayist and playwright Albert Camus was literary representative of his generation. Obsession philosophical problems the meaning of life and search true values provided the writer with cult status among readers and brought him the Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44.

Childhood and youth

Albert Camus was born on November 7, 1913 in Mondovi, Algeria, then part of France. His French father was killed during the First World War when Albert was one year old. The boy's mother, of Spanish origin, was able to provide a small income and housing in a poor area of ​​Algeria thanks to unskilled labor.

Albert's childhood was poor and sunny. Living in Algeria made Camus feel rich due to the temperate climate. Judging by Camus's statement, he "lived in poverty, but also in sensual delight." His Spanish heritage gave him a sense of self-worth in poverty and a passion for honor. Camus began writing at an early age.

At the Algerian University, he brilliantly studied philosophy - the value and meaning of life, focusing on the comparison of Hellenism and Christianity. While still a student, the guy founded a theater, at the same time directed and acted in plays. At the age of 17, Albert fell ill with tuberculosis, which did not allow him to engage in sports, military and teaching activities. Camus worked in various jobs before becoming a journalist in 1938.

His first published works were The Backside and the Face in 1937 and The Wedding Feast in 1939, a collection of essays on the meaning of life and its joys, as well as its meaninglessness. Albert Camus's writing style marked a break with the traditional bourgeois novel. He was less interested psychological analysis rather than philosophical problems.

Camus developed the idea of ​​absurdism, which provided the theme for much of his early works. The absurd is the gap between a person's desire for happiness and a world that he can understand rationally, and real world, which is confused and irrational. The second stage of Camus's thought arose from the first: man must not only accept the absurd universe, but also “revolt” against it. This uprising is not political, but in the name of traditional values.

Books

Camus's first novel, The Stranger, published in 1942, dealt with the negative aspect of man. The book is about a young clerk named Meursault, who is the narrator and main character. Meursault is alien to the expected human emotions; he is a “sleepwalker” in life. The novel's crisis unfolds on the beach when the hero, caught in a quarrel through no fault of his own, shoots an Arab.

The second part of the novel is devoted to his trial for murder and sentence to death penalty, which he understands in much the same way as why he killed the Arab. Meursault is absolutely honest in describing his feelings, and it is this honesty that makes him a “stranger” in the world and ensures a guilty verdict. The overall situation symbolizes the absurd nature of life, and this effect is enhanced by the book's deliberately flat and colorless style.

Camus returned to Algeria in 1941 and completed his next book"The Myth of Sisyphus", also published in 1942. This is a philosophical essay about the nature of the meaninglessness of life. The mythical character Sisyphus, condemned to eternity, lifts a heavy stone up a mountain only to have it roll back down again. Sisyphus becomes a symbol of humanity and achieves a certain sad victory in his constant efforts.

In 1942, returning to France, Camus joined the Resistance group and was engaged in underground journalism until the Liberation in 1944, when he became editor of the newspaper Boy for 3 years. Also during this period, his first two plays were staged: “Misunderstanding” in 1944 and “Caligula” in 1945.

The main role in the first play was played by actress Maria Cazares. Work with Camus turned into a deeper relationship that lasted 3 years. Maria remained on friendly terms with Albert until his death. The main topic The plays became the meaninglessness of life and the finality of death. It was in dramaturgy that Camus felt most successful.

In 1947, Albert published his second novel, The Plague. This time Camus focused on on the positive side person. Describing the fictional attack of the bubonic plague in the Algerian city of Oran, he revisited the theme of absurdism, expressed by the senseless and completely undeserved suffering and death caused by the plague.

The narrator, Dr. Rieux, explained his ideal of "honesty" - a person who retains strength of character and tries his best, even if unsuccessfully, to fight against an outbreak of disease.

On one level, the novel can be seen as a fictional representation of the German occupation in France. "The Plague" became most widely known among readers as a symbol of the fight against evil and suffering - the main moral problems of humanity.

Camus's next important book was The Rebellious Man. The collection includes 3 important philosophical works writer, without whom it is difficult to fully understand his concept of existentialism. In his work he asks questions: what is freedom and truth, what does being really consist of? free man. Life according to Camus is rebellion. And it is worth organizing an uprising in order to truly live.

Personal life

On June 16, 1934, Camus married Simone Hy, who had previously been engaged to the writer's friend Max-Paul Foucher. However, the happy personal life of the newlyweds did not last long - the couple separated by July 1936, and the divorce was finalized in September 1940.

On December 3, 1940, Camus married Francine Faure, a pianist and mathematics teacher whom he had met in 1937. Although Albert loved his wife, he did not believe in the institution of marriage. Despite this, the couple had twin daughters, Catherine and Jean, born on September 5, 1945.

Death

In 1957, Camus received the Nobel Prize in Literature for his works. That same year, Albert began working on the fourth important novel, and was also going to become the director of a large Parisian theater.

On January 4, 1960, he died in a car accident in the small town of Vilbleven. The writer was 46 years old. Although many have speculated that the cause of the writer's death was a Soviet-organized accident, there is no evidence of this. Camus was survived by his wife and children.

Two of his works were published posthumously: "A Happy Death", written in the late 1930s and published in 1971, and "First Man" (1994), which Camus wrote at the time of his death. The death of the writer was a tragic loss for literature, since he still had to write works at a more mature and conscious age and expand his creative biography.

After the death of Albert Camus, many world directors took up the works of the Frenchman to film them. There have already been 6 films based on the philosopher’s books, and one artistic biography, which provides original quotes from the writer and shows his real photos.

Quotes

"Every generation tends to consider itself called upon to remake the world"

“I don’t want to be a genius, I have enough of the problems I face trying to be just a person.”

"The knowledge that we are going to die turns our life into a joke"

"Travel, as the greatest and most serious science, helps us find ourselves again"

Bibliography

• 1937 - "Inside and Out"
• 1942 - "The Outsider"
• 1942 - "The Myth of Sisyphus"
• 1947 - "Plague"
• 1951 - "The Rebel Man"
• 1956 - "Fall"
• 1957 - "Hospitality"
• 1971 - "Happy Death"
• 1978 - "Travel Diary"
• 1994 - "First Man"

French writer and thinker, Nobel Prize laureate (1957), one of the brightest representatives literature of existentialism. In his artistic and philosophical work he developed the existential categories of “existence”, “absurdity”, “rebellion”, “freedom”, “ moral choice”, “limit situation”, and also developed the traditions of modernist literature. Depicting man in a “world without God,” Camus consistently considered the positions of “tragic humanism.” Except literary prose, creative heritage the author includes drama, philosophical essays, literary criticism, and journalistic speeches.

He was born on November 7, 1913 in Algeria, in the family of a rural worker who died from a serious wound received at the front in the First World War. Camus studied first at a communal school, then at the Algiers Lyceum, and then at the University of Algiers. He was interested in literature and philosophy, and devoted his thesis to philosophy.

In 1935 he created the amateur Theater of Labor, where he was an actor, director and playwright.

In 1936 he joined the Communist Party, from which he was expelled in 1937. In the same 1937 he published his first collection of essays, “The Inside Out and the Face.”

In 1938, the first novel, “Happy Death,” was written.

In 1940 he moved to Paris, but due to the German offensive, he lived and taught for some time in Oran, where he completed the story “The Outsider,” which attracted the attention of writers.

In 1941, he wrote the essay “The Myth of Sisyphus,” which was considered a programmatic existentialist work, as well as the drama “Caligula.”

In 1943, he settled in Paris, where he joined the resistance movement and collaborated with the illegal newspaper Combat, which he headed after the resistance threw the occupiers out of the city.

Second half of the 40s - first half of the 50s - period creative development: the novel “The Plague” (1947) appears, which brought the author world fame, the plays “State of Siege” (1948), “The Righteous” (1950), the essay “The Rebel Man” (1951), the story “The Fall” (1956), milestone collection “Exile and Kingdom” (1957), essay “Timely Reflections” (1950-1958), etc. Last years lives were marked by a creative decline.

The work of Albert Camus is an example of the fruitful combination of the talents of a writer and a philosopher. For the development of the artistic consciousness of this creator, acquaintance with the works of F. Nietzsche, A. Schopenhauer, L. Shestov, S. Kierkegaard, as well as ancient culture And French literature. One of the most important factors in the formation of his existentialist worldview was early experience discovery of the proximity of death (back in student years Camus fell ill with pulmonary tuberculosis). As a thinker, he belongs to the atheistic branch of existentialism.

Pathos, denial of the values ​​of bourgeois civilization, concentration on the ideas of the absurdity of existence and rebellion, characteristic of the work of A. Camus, were the reasons for his rapprochement with the pro-communist circle of the French intelligentsia, and in particular with the ideologist of “left” existentialism J. P. Sartre. However, already in post-war years the writer broke with his former colleagues and comrades because he had no illusions about the “communist paradise” in former USSR and wanted to reconsider his relationship with “leftist” existentialism.

While still an aspiring writer, A. Camus drew up a plan for his future creative path, which was supposed to combine three facets of his talent and, accordingly, three areas of his interests - literature, philosophy and theater. There were such stages - “absurdity”, “rebellion”, “love”. The writer consistently implemented his plan, alas, at the third stage his creative path was cut short by death.