Name: The Fall
Rating: 3.845637583892617 (149 reviews)
ISBN: 9780679720225

Albert Camus

A man's confessions reveal his perception of justice and his own downfall

The Fall

Ritik Sahni

armoni mayes

The Fall is in a close second to A Happy Death, which is my favorite of Camus. Anyways, of course this book was phenomenal although i can admit some bias because i got my philosophical look on life from Camus so the more i read the more i believe! 

The Fall follows a man called Jean-Baptiste and the events leading to his downfall–and arguably ‘resurrection’. He tells the story to some random guy he met in a bar, but we the reader are essentially the stand in character. He describes his life before the turmoil began-to which he says that he was an honest, virtuous man who held the respect of a lot of people due to his job being a lawyer. Baptiste also tells us that he was only pretending to be a good person so that other people would think he was a good person. The big trigger point for his new point of view was not helping a young woman who jumped in the water from a bridge, committing suicide, because he himself was afraid that he’d die too. But that is all i say for my synopsis. 

Jean-Baptiste begins on his journey to destroy himself, because this event has changed his perspective on what it is to be innocent or guilty. Around this time Camus also makes a case against suicide–essentially saying that people will forget you so what was the point {this is a key point of absurdism, camus raises it often in Myth of Sisphyus}. Anyways, Jean-Baptiste decides that he must judge himself in order to prevent others from judging him. This leads him down to what he would call his own “freedom”. Because he is now conscious that all men are guilty and do not want to be judged but continues to judges others, he is now essentially better and higher than everyone else…again. 

Nevertheless I have nothing more to add to the conversation on this book because it’s already been hashed over so many times. If you want to get into Camus i think you should start with The Stranger, then A Happy Death, then The Fall, and finally the Myth of Sisphyus.

Sarah Sammis

I've read other works by Camus and enjoyed them. I can't say that of "The Fall." It's written in the same style as "Notes from Underground" in that it is a one on one dialog with the assumed reader of the novel. This type of narrative rarely works well and it certainly didn't work here for me.

When all the window dressing is pulled away from this thankfully short novel (only about 50 pages), the story comes down to nothing more than a recollection of the narrators "fall" from grace and his exile.

Lila R E

this is a seriously mentally ill individual

Arjo Gupto

The most astonishingly original opinion on the human condition. Albert Camus' "The Fall" is a dissection of life and the nature of the human beings that live it. It is the best thing any writer can ever want to have with him forever. More important than a thesaurus, this will book will explain everything and anything to anybody seeking answers about themselves and those who surround them. One of the most important texts on life, this side of Ovid's Metamorphoses and can definitely breathe the same air as Ernest Hemingway's 'Old Man and The Sea" and Charles Dickens' "A Tale Of Two Cities".

Zoë Schaefer

I need a break from this type of French literature. Sorry, France.

Rob Brogan

If you aren't used to Camus or aren't prepared to dive into it at full speed, this can be hard to get through. I tried reading it bit by bit and I abandoned it. Then a year later I read it through in two nights. I think better than The Stranger, but that may be because the message is more obvious and presented in dialectic narrative.

The Fall

Reviews

Highlights

Join the club