Where to start with Albert Camus

French novelist, 1913–1960.

Best Albert Camus book to start with: The Stranger (1942), on 5 of the 11 lists it could have made.

The Stranger is short enough to read in an evening, which makes it the obvious first Camus. A man in French Algeria goes to his mother’s funeral, and everything that follows grows out of how little he seems to feel. The sentences are plain and the book is built from them, so there is no difficulty to get past.

The Plague is the longer of the two and the natural next read. A town is closed off by an epidemic, and the book follows the doctors and ordinary residents who deal with it. It appeared five years after The Stranger, in 1947, and it is slower and more thoughtful, with a wider cast.

Camus wrote in French, so look at a sample page of the translation before you buy either book.

Albert Camus's books, ranked best first

The Stranger comes first, on 5 of the 11 lists it could have made, followed by The Plague.

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