Lyrical and Critical Essays brings together Albert Camus’ early lyrical writings and later critical reflections, offering a vivid picture of his development as a writer and thinker. The collection includes the youthful meditations of The Wrong Side and the Right Side (1937), the sensual celebrations of Nuptials (1938), and the profound humanism of Summer (1954). These essays explore themes of love, nature, mortality, exile, and the Mediterranean world that shaped Camus’ imagination. Alongside them appear his critical appraisals of figures such as Sartre, Gide, Melville, and Faulkner, as well as personal statements where he distances himself from existentialism and reflects on his own literary identity. Edited by Philip Thody and translated from the French by Ellen Conroy Kennedy, this volume presents English readers with a unified view of Camus’ lyrical voice and intellectual engagement.
Pages: 368
Publication year: 1970 (Vintage International edition)
Publisher: Vintage Books, a division of Random House, New York
Language: English
Original language: French
Translator: Ellen Conroy Kennedy
Target audience: Adults
