The myth of Sisyphus & other essays – by Albert Camus

The myth of Sisyphus & other essays – by Albert Camus

     …for nothing is vanity to him except the hope of another life.

In a universe where existence of God is doubtful, and one finds no reason to live the most important question to answer can only be- why must not one commit suicide? Albert Camus’s ‘The myth of Sisyphus’ attempts to answer this question by first accepting the meaninglessness and disconnectedness of man and his reality and then dwelling on the reasons and paradigms of why man can and possibly should choose not to kill himself amidst such a world.

Camus attempts to define what he calls ‘the absurd’ as a quasi- adjective that he later uses to define elements such as absurd art, absurd literature and absurd man through the description and analysis of characters such as Don Juan, one of the greatest known lovers of fiction, Dostoevsky’s Kirilov and Kafka’s Joseph K. The myth of Sisyphus itself comes near the end as the apotheosis to the analyses. Albert Camus’ writing is quite passionate and still logical, though I cannot say for sure how much of the quality of the work was lost in translation. Camus’s ideas are themselves not easy to comprehend, but his attempt to present the same idea from different perspectives in order to exposit his philosophy is not only commendable but also quite artful. The reader should have basic ideas related to the literary references Camus makes in his work. Reading Kafka, Dostoevsky, and the myth of Sisyphus itself would go a long way in painting a cohesive picture of Camus' philosophy in the mind of the reader.

In the other essays, Camus has beautifully described cities such as Algiers and Oran. The description is quite vivid and one can almost feel transported to the places he describes.

I recommend this work to those who have already read one of Camus’ other works and want to delve deeper into his philosophy. This work probably would not be very interesting to a general reader.