Just Finished Reading: The Rebel by Albert Camus

It sometimes makes a refreshing change to read a book of philosophy rather than a book about philosophy. Of course this usually means that you’re in for a hard time trying to understand just what this particular philosopher is all about and it can pretty intense at times. So it was with my first full-on exposure to Camus. I’d read about him before – at a slight distance – but have never read anything by him until now. I must say that I was generally very impressed.

The Rebel is, not surprisingly, about the idea of rebellion through modern (mostly European) history. Beginning with the rebellion against God – via a rebellion against His earthly representatives and the concept of the divine right of Kings – Camus concentrates mostly on the French Revolution, which he critiques in great detail bringing many facts to light regarding how far some of the revolutionaries were prepared to go to ‘save’ the revolution from the people it was supposed to represent, before setting his sights on the Russian Revolution and the triumph of Soviet Communism. After being involved in the Communist French Resistance – by far the most effective section of that movement – you would be justified in thinking that Camus would give his support to the Soviet State. How wrong we would both be on this point. In the middle of this book Camus produces what I can only describe as some of the most effective, withering and relentless criticism of an ideology I can remember reading – ever. Reading it almost made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I hadn’t really felt that way since reading Nietzsche for the first time. It was awesome. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that his good friend Sartre and the French Communist party roundly attacked him for his views.

The later part of the book proved to be a particular struggle for me. Here Camus discussed the artist as rebel and this proved to be quite honestly way above my head. However, the majority of this work was very interesting and I can see clearly why students all over the world took this book, and this author, to its collective heart in the rebellions of the 1960’s. Camus writes like a novelist rather than a philosopher which is where some of the criticism of his status comes from I guess – either that or the fact that he did actually write novels, but then again Sartre wrote plays so who can say (and of course Rousseau wrote Opera). Whilst not always an easy read Camus does get his ideas across even to someone still finding his way in philosophy like I am. You’ll certainly be seeing his name here again… and soon. Recommended.