Mordant, brilliant, elegantly styled, The Fall is a novel of the conscience of modern man in the face of evil. In a seedy bar in Amsterdam, Clamence, an expatriate Frenchman, indulges in a calculated confession. He recalls his past life as a respected Parisian lawyer, a champion of noble causes, and, privately, a libertine—yet one apparently immune to judgment. As his narrative unfolds, ambiguities amass; every triumph reveals a failure, every motive a hidden treachery. The irony of his recital anticipates his downfall—and implicates us all.
Editorial Reviews
"Spare and lucid (like the best of Gide), burning with wit (like pages from Voltaire)...a monologue on the human condition." —The Nation
"Uniquely Camus. Beneath its wit, elegance, and irony there is no lack of intelligence, troubled earnestness, and perhaps even the moral anguish of the true religieux." —San Francisco Chronicle
About the Author
Born in Algeria in 1913, Albert Camus published The Stranger—now one of the most widely read novels of this century—in 1942. Celebrated in intellectual circles, Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. On January 4, 1960, he was killed in a car accident.
