Albert Camus was deeply concerned by the question of whether life was truly worth living in a universe he believed to be godless. Penguin Modern Classics publish all of Camus's existentialist masterpieces, including The Outsider and The Plague. In these essays, set in his birthplace of Algeria, he explores both the beauty and the absurdity of the human condition.

The loves we share with a city are often secret loves. Old walled towns like Paris, Prague, and even Florence are closed in on themselves and hence limit the world that belongs to them. But Algiers (together with certain other privileged places such as cities on the sea) opens to the sky like a mouth or a wound. In Algiers one loves the commonplace: the sea at the end of the street, a certain volume of sunlight, the beauty of the race. And, as always, in that unashamed offering there is a secret fragrance. In Paris it is possible to be homesick for space and a beating of wings. Here, at least, man is gratified in every wish and, sure of his desires, can at last measure his possessions.

Probably one has to live in Algiers for some time in order to realize how paralysing an excess of nature's bounty can be. There is nothing here for whoever would learn, educate himself, or better himself. This country has no lessons to teach. It neither promises nor affords glimpses. It is satisfied to give, but in abundance. It is completely accessible to the eyes, and you know it the moment you enjoy it. Its pleasures are without remedy and its joys without hope.

Buy this book, or buy the boxed set

If you like this book, you may also like these:

The Desert and the Dancing Girls - Gustave Flaubert
Cloud, Castle, Lake - Vladimir Nabokov
Caligula - Robert Graves