If you enjoyed The Myth of Sisyphus, you might like Camus’ The Outsider, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957, Camus is remembered as one of the few writers to have shaped the intellectual climate of post-war France, but beyond that, his fame has been international. They include The Fall, The Outsider and The First Man. This volume contains several other essays, including lyrical evocations of the sunlit cities of Algiers and Oran, the settings of his great novels The Outsider and The Plague.Īlbert Camus (1913-60) is the author of a number of best-selling and highly influential works, all of which are published by Penguin. The absurd lies in the juxtaposition between the fundamental human need to attribute meaning to life. Influenced by philosophers such as Sren Kierkegaard, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Friedrich Nietzsche, Camus introduces his philosophy of the absurd. Written during the bleakest days of the Second World War, The Myth of Sisyphus (Le Mythe de Sisyphe) argues for an acceptance of reality that encompasses revolt, passion and, above all, liberty. The Myth of Sisyphus (French: Le mythe de Sisyphe) is a 1942 philosophical essay by Albert Camus. This is our ‘absurd’ task, like Sisyphus forever rolling his rock up a hill, as the inevitability of death constantly overshadows us. In this profound and moving philosophical statement, Camus poses the fundamental question: is life worth living? If human existence holds no significance, what can keep us from suicide? As Camus argues, if there is no God to give meaning to our lives, humans must take on that purpose themselves. The summation of the existentialist philosophy threaded throughout all his writing, Albert Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus is translated by Justin O’Brien with an introduction by James Wood in Penguin Classics.

The myth of sisyphus penguin