Conor Cruise O'Brien: Camus, 1970, heftet

Fontana Modern Masters, 3. opplag, pocket

Flott eksemplar, nesten som ny, bortsett fra bitte litt hylleslitasje.

Forty years ago Conor Cruise O'Brien wrote a small but brilliantly argued critique of Camus' work. In The Outsider, for example, amongst many things O'Brien notes is that a European in Algeria would not face the death penalty for the murder of an Arab. More fundamentally O'Brien takes issue with the allegorical value of the plague in La Peste. It is of course generally accepted that the disease is a metaphor for the Nazi occupation of France & Western Europe, however the impact of this metaphor collapses when one considers that Oran itself was occupied by the French colonialists--an irony which Camus seems blissfully unaware. In passing there is not a named Arab who is the victim of the plague. It's as if these deaths are of little value compared to the French occupiers.

The best (and only) brilliantly argued critique on Camus' work.He shows that Camus' allegiances are more to the European colonists than to the Arabs. Camus never names an Arab, calling him simply 'Arab' or 'Arabs'.A white European would not have been executed for the murder of an Arab in self defence .Though Camus was on the side of independence of Algeria and loved his country.He loved his mother more than justice. Also in The Plague we know 'the plague' is an allegory of the nazi occupation of France. Camus seems to have no awareness that Algeria was itself under French occupation.The Arabs in the story seem to exist as the shadowy 'other' and are never specifically depicted.Camus was educated as any Frenchman would have been,picked out early as a gifted student and given a university education.O'Brien despite raising these criticisms has an underlying allegiance to Camus's work.