LITERARY CLASSICS 1850 - 1950

MOBY-DICK - HERMAN MELVILLE (1851)

Moby-Dick is considered by many to be the Great American Novel. The story follows a wandering sailor named Ishmael on his voyage on the whaling ship which is commanded by the fanatical Captain Ahab. The voyage has one purpose for Ahab, and that is to find and kill the ferocious white sperm whale named Moby-Dick, who had destroyed Ahab's boat and bit off his leg in a previous encounter. Moby-Dick employs stylized language, symbolism, and metaphor to explore numerous themes including class and social status, good and evil, and the existence of God. The narrative uses objective description, reflections, and Shakespearean literary devices, such as stage directions, extended soliloquies, and asides. The book is not only a great narrative, but is full of enriched and beautiful language. Melville wrote it with inspiration and an exhilarating energy. In a way, Moby-Dick is the first modern novel as it uses sermons, essay-like descriptions of whaling, and multiple points of view of narration to create a work that  portrays the destructiveness of obsession and how it leads to a malignant evil. 

NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND - FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY (1864)

Notes is considered by many to be the first existentialist novel, and is a grand look at the human condition from the perspective of a man living on the fringes of society. It takes the form of an excerpt from the rambling memoirs of a bitter, isolated, unnamed narrator, who is a retired civil servant living in St. Petersburg. Part One is a monologue from the underground man's diary. Part Two describes certain events that are simultaneously destroying and renewing the underground man, who acts as an unreliable narrator. The book presents a portrait of humanity that is irrational, uncontrollable, and uncooperative, and believes that human needs can never be satisfied, even through technological progress. Dostoyevsky would go on to write other great novels including Crime and Punishment (1866) and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). 

ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN - MARK TWAIN (1884)

Huck Finn is about the search for freedom and makes a strong statement about racism in American society. The story centers around a young boy (Huck Finn) who is abused and incarcerated by his drunkard father. Huck escapes, fakes his death, and embarks on a journey down the Mississippi, where he meets an escaped slave named Jim. Jim is trying to find his way to freedom by getting to Ohio. At first, Huck is conflicted but as he gets to know Jim, he changes his opinion about people, slavery, and life in general. The book has been criticized by some for its use of racial slurs and racial stereotypes, but in the end the book humanizes Jim and the novel is critical of racism and slavery. Through his first person narration from Huck's point of view, Twain places Huck in an outside position where he can view the paradoxes and hypocrisies of American culture, while presenting a story that is also at times satirical and humorous.

HEART OF DARKNESS - JOSEPH CONRAD (1903)

Heart of Darkness centers around the story of Charles Marlow, who narrates the book and takes an assignment from a Belgian trading company as a river-boat captain in Africa. Marlow encounters darkness in many forms including that of Belgian colonialism.

He encounters the darkness of the Congo wilderness, the darkness of the treatment of African natives, and the darkness within every human being for committing acts of evil. Marlow is transporting ivory, but his mission is also to return Kurtz, another ivory trader to civilization. The journey up the river becomes a metaphor for life in general, and the symbolic story expands on the struggle between good and evil, not only between people, but within the soul of the individual. 

THE METAMORPHOSIS - FRANZ KAFKA (1915)

The Metamorphosis is a novella by Franz Kafka that centers around the character of Gregor Samsa, a travelling salesman, who wakes up to find himself transformed into a monstrous insect-like creature. The book is about the oppression of work and family and how we can become dehumanized, alienated, and completely disjointed from society. Gregor's family is dependent on him to make money for their survival and the story deals with their reaction to his transformation. They eventually see him as a burden. The novella rejects the idea that everything has meaning and purpose. Sometimes things happen in life that cannot be explained.

ULYSSES - JAMES JOYCE (1922)

Ulysses chronicles the passage of Leopold Bloom through Dublin during an ordinary day, June 16, 1904. The title alludes to Odysseus, the hero of Homer's Odyssey, and presents a series of parallels between characters and events in Homer's poem and Joyce's novel. The single-day story is told in 18 episodes and contains 265,000 words in a labyrinth text. Joyce uses stream-of-consciousness, careful structuring, and experimental prose - full of puns, parodies, and allusions, with rich characterization and broad humor. Ulysses is considered by many to be the greatest novel of the 20th Century.

MRS. DALLOWAY - VIRGINIA WOOLF (1925)

Mrs. Dalloway details a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway in post-WWI England. The novel covers the story of Clarissa's preparation for a party that she will host. The book takes an interior perspective and travels forwards and back in time and in and out of character's minds. The action all takes place in a single day, but there are flashbacks to events in the past. The Novel is an example of free indirect discourse storytelling, where every scene tracks the momentary thoughts of a particular character. Besides Clarissa the other major character in the novel is Septimus Warren Smith, who suffers from shell shock and hallucinations from his war experiences which eventually leads to his tragic demise. Woolf, through the narrative is critical of the treatment of mental illness and depression by the medical establishment and society. Virginia Woolf suffered from depression herself and committed suicide in 1941.

THE GREAT GATSBY - F. SCOTT FITZGERALD (1925)

The Great Gatsby is portrait of the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and excess. The book deals with the American obsession with money, ambition, greed, and the promise of new beginnings. The Great Gatsby is about the rise to glory and the eventual fall from grace, and depicts the dark side of the American dream. The novel is told through the eyes of Nick Carraway who is objective, charming, and genuinely decent. The characters eventually collide into a tragic climax that reveals the hypocrisy of the rich and the falseness of an undeserved love. The strength of the novel is with the lyrical prose Fitzgerald employs to illuminate these themes. 

THE SUN ALSO RISES - ERNEST HEMINGWAY (1926)

The Sun Also Rises tells the story of a group of American and British expatriates who travel from Paris to Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls and the bullfights. On the surface the book is a love story between Jake Barnes, who is impotent because of a war wound, and a promiscuous divorcee Brett Ashley. Brett's affair with another character Robert Cohn upsets Jake.  He loses his good reputation with the Spaniards in Pamplona when Brett has an affair with the 19-year old matador Romero. The novel is based on Hemingway's own experiences. He also presents the notion that the Lost Generation, considered to be decadent and damaged by WWI, was actually resilient and strong. The Sun Also Rises uses Hemingway's clean, clear, paired-down prose to investigate the themes of love, death, rebirth, and the nature of masculinity.

THE SOUND AND THE FURY - WILLIAM FAULKNER (1929)

The Sound and The Fury centers around the Compson family, former Southern aristocrats who are struggling to deal with the dissolution of their family and its reputation. The novel employs various literary and structural techniques that were considered ground breaking at the time. It is separated into four sections. The first section is written from the perspective of Benjy Compson, who has severe mental handicaps, and is characterized by a disjointed narrative style with many chronological leaps. The second section focuses on Quentin Compson, the older brother, and the events leading up to his suicide. The third section takes the point of view of Jason, who is Quentin's cynical younger brother. The last section takes a third person point of view and primarily focuses on Dilsey, one of the Compson's black servants, although Faulkner presents glimpses of the thoughts and deeds of everyone in the family. The four parts relate many of the same episodes from different points of view and from different times. The narrators are not always trustworthy or reliable. The Sound and The Fury uses an experimental narrative style to depict the descent of an American family.

TROPIC OF CANCER - HENRY MILLER (1934)

Henry Miller exploded existing literary forms by combining autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism into an expressive fiction that was based on his own experiences. His works were controversial for the unashamed and detailed depictions of sex, and his work was banned in the United States and other countries for being obscene until 1961. Tropic of Cancer is set in Paris and centers around Miller's life as a struggling writer. Some of the chapters follow a narrative and there are references to Miller's actual friends, colleagues, and workplaces. Other chapters are written as stream-of-consciousness reflections, and the book being in the first person, does not have a linear organization, but fluctuates between the past and the present. The central character who pulls us through the book suffers from hunger, homelessness, loneliness, and despair, and can be abhorrent at times, yet ecstatic with life at others. There are explicit passages of his sexual encounters, but overall the book acts as an immersive meditation on the human condition.

THE STRANGER - ALBERT CAMUS (1942)

The Stranger is an example of existentialist literature and exhibited Camus' belief in the absurdity of man's existence. The book tells the story of Meursault, a French Algerian who senselessly kills an Arab man and his subsequent arrest and trial for the crime. Part One begins with Meursault being informed of his mother's death and going to her funeral. He doesn't show any of the expected emotions of grief and doesn't express his feelings in the narrative. Meursault is an ordinary, middle-class man, but what sets him apart from humanity is his indifference and lack of empathy for just about anything whether it be the abuse of a woman, the abuse of a dog, or even the death of his own mother. In Part Two, Camus describes Meursault's incarceration and trial for the murder, but Meursault expresses neither guilt or regret. As the trial evolves, all of the above details are brought out as evidence for Meursault's guilt. Is he on trial for the murder?...or for his indifference and actions surrounding his mother's death? Near the end of the book he meets with the chaplain, but rejects his opportunity to turn to God. The chaplain persists and finally Meursault becomes angry, with a climactic outburst about the meaninglessness of existence and the universe's indifference towards humankind. In the end Meursault accepts his fate and acknowledges his mortality and responsibility for his own actions.

THE STRANGER

Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don't know.

These are the first words of THE STRANGER, the novel by Albert Camus that was published in 1942. The book tells the story of Meursault, a French Algerian who senselessly kills an Arab man and his subsequent arrest and trial for the crime.

THE STRANGER is an example of existentialist literature and exhibited Camus' belief in the absurdity of man's existence.

Part One begins with Meursault being informed of his mother's death and going to her funeral. He doesn't show any of the expected emotions of grief and doesn't express his feelings in the narrative. Meursault is an ordinary, middle-class man. He has a job, a group of friends, and even a girlfriend, but what sets him apart from humanity is his indifference and lack of empathy for just about anything whether it be the abuse of a woman, the abuse of a dog, or even the death of his own mother. In this first section Meursault objectively details his existence and describes the world around him. This includes an affair with Marie, a woman who works with him. He likes her and enjoys being with her, but can't express love for her. He describes the old man and his dog who live near him and who have a love/hate relationship with one another. He helps his friend Raymond take revenge on a girlfriend, yet Meursault seems without passion and judgement. After an encounter with a group of Arab men, one of which is related to the girl that Raymond abuses, Meursault goes back to the beach where he encounters one of them and in the blinding heat, kills him with Raymond's gun. 

In Part Two, Camus describes Meursault's incarceration and trial for the murder, but Meursault expresses neither guilt or regret. As the trial evolves, all of the above details are brought out as evidence for Meursault's guilt. Is he on trial for the murder?...or for his indifference and actions surrounding his mother's death?

Meursault is found guilty and sentenced to death by guillotine. Near the end of the book he meets with the chaplain, but rejects his opportunity to turn to God. The chaplain persists and finally Meursault becomes angry, with a climactic outburst about the meaninglessness of existence and the universe's indifference towards humankind. In the end Meursault accepts his fate and acknowledges his mortality and responsibility for his own actions.

Camus' philosophy of the absurd was set forth in his essay The Myth of Sisyphus which was also published in 1942. He analyzes man's search for meaning, unity, and clarity in the face of a world devoid of God and eternal truths and values. The world is absurd because it is meaningless and indifferent. Camus comes to the conclusion that the best way to deal with this realization of the absurd is not to commit suicide, but to revolt and for one to create their own meaning in life. The essay deals with many issues and analyzes the work of other philosophers such as Heidegger, Jaspers, and  Kierkegaard. Camus also talks about Don Juan and his place in the absurd world, as well as the life of the actor and the conqueror. In Part Three he explores the absurd creator or artist and looks at the work of Dostoyevsky. 

In the final chapter, Camus talks of The Myth of Sisyphus, where for all of eternity Sisyphus is forced by the gods to push a rock up a mountain to the top where it rolls down again and he has to repeat the act over and over. Camus sees Sisyphus as the absurd hero who lives life to the fullest, hates death and is condemned to a meaningless task. Camus presents Sisyphus's endless and pointless toil as a metaphor for modern lives spent working futile jobs in factories and offices. In the end though Sisyphus reaches contentment when he becomes conscious of the absurdity of his situation. In an appendix Camus also examines the work of Franz Kafka and its relation to the absurd.

The Plague (1947) was Camus' second novel and tells the story of medical workers finding solidarity in their work as a plague sweeps through the Algerian city of Oran. The characters ranging from doctors, to vacationers, to fugitives, all exhibit the effect the plague has on the populace, and each deals with it in a different way. The novel has been read as a metaphorical treatment of the French resistance to the Nazi occupation of France.

The book deals with the themes of exile, separation, solidarity, community, resistance, and religion.The Plague emphasizes that ultimately we have no control, life is irrational, and the world and existence are absurd, but still we should not give up, but find meaning in our lives when dealing with events that are out of our hands.

The Rebel (1951) was a book-length essay which covers both the historical and metaphysical development of rebellion and revolution in societies, especially Western Europe. Camus writes about a variety of artists including Epicurus, Marquis de Sade, Hegel, Nietzsche, Breton, and Dostoyevsky and how they all historically portray man in revolt. The book deals with the contradictions of rebellion as those who do rebel often become totalitarian themselves once they take power.

The Fall (1956) was the final novel published in Camus' lifetime and is told as a first-person confession by the character Jean-Baptiste Clamence as he reflects upon his life to a stranger. Once a highly respected lawyer, he details his crisis and ultimate fall from grace. It takes place in Amsterdam often in a bar named Mexico City. There are references to Dante's Inferno, Nazism, and the Ghent Alterpiece by Van Eyck. The Fall explores themes of innocence, imprisonment, and the illusive quality of truth. 

Exile and the Kingdom is a collection of six short stories published in 1957. They were written between 1949 and 1955 and they further explore the themes of Camus' other work. He is concerned with the dilemma of the outsider or stranger, the conflict between solitude and community, exile and belonging, and speech and silence.

These themes were directly linked to Camus' own life as he was French but born and raised in a working class family in Algeria. During WWII, he was one of the leading writers of the French Resistance and editor of the underground newspaper Combat. He also alienated himself from other leftist, including Jean-Paul Sartre, with his criticism of Stalinism. He was distressed by the Algerian War of Independence in the 1950s, and anguished by the terrorism on both sides and eventually chose not to take a stand on the issue. These life experiences directly informed his writings.

Camus also wrote plays, as well as essays and literature. 

Other important writings include Resistance, Rebellion, and Death (1961) which was a collection of essays that did cover conflicts including the Algerian War and included an important essay critical of capital punishment called Reflections on the Guillotine. The Artist and His Time is an essay that concludes that the justification for the artist is to speak up for those who cannot do so for themselves.

A Happy Death (1971) was actually the first novel by Camus and draws on memories of suffering from tuberculosis, working for the maritime commission in Algiers, and his travels in Europe. It is considered a precursor to The Stranger, but Camus decided not to publish it when he wrote it in the late 1930s. It came out after his death.

The First Man was an autobiographical novel Camus was working on at the time he was killed in an automobile wreck in the town of Villeblevin in 1960. It was found in the mud near the accident site and published by his daughter in 1995. In an absurd twist, an unused train ticket was found in his coat pocket. At the last minute, he had decided not to take the train, and instead travelled by car with his publisher and close friend Michel Gallimard who was also killed in the accident.