A short novel told as a single long monologue in a seedy Amsterdam bar. Jean-Baptiste Clamence, once a successful Parisian lawyer, speaks to a stranger and gradually reveals how a small moment in his past shook his comfortable image of himself as a good man.
What begins as charming conversation turns into a sharp, uneasy examination of guilt, judgment and hypocrisy. Camus wrote it in a witty and confiding voice that draws the reader in, then turns the questions back on them. It is one of his most subtle and unsettling works.
Quotes
To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others.
This is the truth," we say. "You can discuss it as much as you want; we aren't interested. But in a few years there'll be the police who will show you we are right.
In order to cease being a doubtful case, one has to cease being, that's all.
Martyrs must choose between being forgotten, mocked, or made use of. As for being understood—never!