The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays
Compelling
Expressive
Paradoxical

The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays

Albert Camus2016
One of the most influential works of this century, this is a crucial exposition of existentialist thought. Influenced by works such as Don Juan and the novels of Kafka, these essays begin with a meditation on suicide: the question of living or not living in an absurd universe devoid of order or meaning. With lyric eloquence, Camus posits a way out of despair, reaffirming the value of personal existence, and the possibility of life lived with dignity and authenticity
Sign up to use

Reviews

Photo of Kendall McClain
Kendall McClain@kendallmcclain
4 stars
Jan 29, 2024

This feels like a meditation

Photo of logan chung
logan chung@lchungr
4 stars
Nov 17, 2023

The benefit of Camus' argument is in the possibility that I only rated this five stars out of denial.

Photo of maia
maia@wuthering
4.5 stars
Dec 24, 2022

“I conclude that all is well.”

+6
Photo of Diana Platgalve
Diana Platgalve@dianaplatgalve
5 stars
Dec 15, 2021

Beautiful attempt to answer a fundamental question of “is life worth living?”Camus is inviting us to accept our absurd condition because facing the Absurd is what allows us to live to our fullest. Even if life is meaningless it does not require suicide, it requires revolt. Living an experience, a particular fate, is accepting it fully.

Photo of Suzie
Suzie@zieziereads
3.5 stars
Apr 20, 2024
Photo of M. G. Paulinus
M. G. Paulinus@marcpaulinus
5 stars
Sep 1, 2022
Photo of Ricardo
Ricardo@myrddinmorfrenwyllt
4 stars
Aug 16, 2022
Photo of Isaura Azenha
Isaura Azenha@isaurazenha
5 stars
Jun 13, 2024
Photo of Amna A.
Amna A.@crayoladagger
4 stars
Apr 5, 2024
Photo of Pap
Pap@alice9
5 stars
Apr 4, 2024
Photo of Jessica gonzalez
Jessica gonzalez@justsayjes
4 stars
Jan 11, 2024
Photo of Haru Leo
Haru Leo@haruleo
5 stars
Jan 8, 2024
Photo of D VA
D VA@pneumatic
4 stars
Dec 25, 2023
Photo of Nav Singh
Nav Singh@nav67
5 stars
Dec 21, 2023
Photo of jennifer
jennifer @booksvirgo
5 stars
Dec 18, 2023
Photo of Ashley
Ashley@ashx
5 stars
Dec 13, 2023
Photo of Maurice FitzGerald
Maurice FitzGerald@soraxtm
4 stars
Dec 10, 2023
Photo of Ruida Ding
Ruida Ding@rayduck
5 stars
Nov 28, 2023
Photo of Kyle Curry
Kyle Curry@kcurry24
4 stars
Nov 22, 2023
Photo of Tanner Christensen
Tanner Christensen@tannerc
3 stars
Sep 21, 2023
Photo of Mitch Stewart
Mitch Stewart@mitchbones
5 stars
Jul 6, 2023
Photo of David Barreda
David Barreda@inkaman
3 stars
May 12, 2023
Photo of Tuago
Tuago@iagomr
4 stars
Apr 13, 2023
Photo of alexa
alexa@newjeans
5 stars
Apr 4, 2023

Highlights

Photo of maia
maia@wuthering

“I,” he says, "am unhappy because I am obliged to assert my freedom."

Photo of maia
maia@wuthering

All existen ce for a man turned away from the eternal is but a vast mime under the mask of the absurd. Creation is the great mime.

Photo of maia
maia@wuthering

"Art and nothing but art," said Nietzsche; "we have art in order not to die of the truth."

Photo of maia
maia@wuthering

"What matters," said Nietzsche, "is not eternal life but eternal vivacity." All drama is, in fact, in this choice.

Photo of maia
maia@wuthering

That is called losing oneself to find oneself.

Photo of maia
maia@wuthering

What mnore ghastly image can be called up than that of a man betrayed by his body who, simnply because he did not die in time, lives out the comedy while awaiting the end, face to face with that God he does not adore, serving him as he served life, kneeling before a void and arms outstretched toward a heaven without eloquence that he knows to be also without depth?

Photo of maia
maia@wuthering

There, too, there are several ways of committing suicide, one of which is the total gift and forgetfulness of self.

Photo of maia
maia@wuthering

But men who live on hope do not thrive in this universe where kindness yields to generosity, affection to virile silence, and communion to solitary courage. And all hasten to say: “He was a weakling, an idealist or a saint." One has to disparage the greatness that insults.

Photo of maia
maia@wuthering

But the point is to live.

oh, to live.. to live.. to live..

Photo of maia
maia@wuthering

Everything that makes man work and get excited utilizes hope. The sole thought that is not mendacious is therefore a sterile thought. In the absurd world the value of a notion or of a life is measured by its sterility.

Photo of maia
maia@wuthering

But what does life mean in such a universe? Nothing else for the moment but indifference to the future and a desire to use up everything that is given.

Photo of maia
maia@wuthering

The absurd man thus catches sight of a burning and frigid, transparent and limited universe in which nothing is possible but everything is given, and beyond which all is collapse and nothingness. He can then decide to accept such a universe and draw from it his strength, his refusal to hope, and the unyielding evidence of a life without consolation.

Photo of maia
maia@wuthering

I can negate everything of that part of me that lives on vague nostalgias, except this desire for unity, this longing to solve, this need for clarity and cohesion.

Photo of maia
maia@wuthering

18:34 "If man had no eternal consciousness, if, at the bottom of everything, there were merely a wild, seething force producing everything, both large and trifling, in the storm of dark passions, if the bottomless void that nothing can fll underlay all things, what would life be but despair?"

Photo of maia
maia@wuthering

Through an odd reasoning, starting out from the absurd over the ruins of reason, in a closed universe limited to the human, they deify what crushes them and find reason to hope in what impoverishes them. That forced hope is religious in all of them. It deserves attention.

Photo of maia
maia@wuthering

In this particular case and on the plane of intelligence, I can therefore say that the Absurd is not in man (if such a metaphor could have a meaning) nor in the world, but in their presence together.

Photo of maia
maia@wuthering

How can one fail to feel the basic relationship of these minds! How can one fail to see that they take their stand around a privileged and bitter moment in which hope has no further place?I want everything to be explained to mne or nothing.

Photo of maia
maia@wuthering

Understanding the world for a man is reducing it to the human, stamping it with his seal.

Photo of maia
maia@wuthering

The typical act of eluding, the fatal evasion that constitutes the third therne of this essay, is hope.

Photo of maia
maia@wuthering

Dying voluntarily implies that you have recognized, even instinctively, the ridiculous character of that habit, the absence of any profound reason for living, the insane character of that daily agitation, and the uselessness of suffering.

Photo of maia
maia@wuthering

In a sense, and as in melodrama, killing yourself amounts to confessing. It is confessing that life is too much for you or that you do not understand it.