Volume 5, Number 10 · December 23, 1965
The Mask of Albert Camus
By Paul de Man
Notebooks 1942-1951
by Albert Camus, translated and annotated by Justin O'Brien
Knopf, 292 pp., $5.00
The subtle but radical change that separates the intellectual atmosphere of the Fifties from that of the Sixties could well be measured by one's attitude towards the work and the person of Albert Camus. During his lifetime he was for many an exemplary figure; his work bears many traces of the doubts and agonies that such an exalted position inevitably carries with it. He has not ceased to be so: In several recent literary essays, written by men whose formative years coincided with the period of Camus's strongest influence, the impact of his presence can still be strongly felt. On the other hand, one can well imagine how he might prove disappointing to a new generation, not because this generation lacks the experience that shaped Camus's world, but because the interpretation he gave of his own experience lacks clarity and insight. That Sartre and Merleau-Ponty, different from each other as they are, seem more closely attuned to the modern temper is by itself no proof of their superiority. Nor indeed does this make Camus necessarily the defender of permanent values. Before we can blame our times for moving away from him, we must clarify our notion of what he represents.
Review, 3654 words
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