French Literature Reviews - 2026

A. Abbou, A. Camus, Between the Lines: Farewell to Literature or False Exit, 1955-1959
Writers: Biography, Letters and Memoirs

André Abbou, A. Camus, Between the Lines: Farewell to Literature or False Exit, 1955-1959

Séguier/Atlantica, "Essais" series, 2009

• ISBN 13 (EAN): 9782840495635

Publisher's blurb:

The final period of Camus's life remains the least understood part of his existence. It suffers from the clichés that spread following, and because of, his Nobel Prize. In the clamor of even the most well-informed biographies—those most eager to bring a living Camus to life—the most anecdotal trivia, the most casual or conventional snippets of correspondence, are elevated to the status of lifelong commitments and enduring behaviors. Everything is flattened: no distinction is made between affectation and genuine feeling, fleeting moods and deep convictions, frivolous distractions and deliberate conduct, or passing intentions and the decision to act.

While many earlier stereotypes from around the 1952–1956 period cast him as a delusional counter-revolutionary, clinging to defunct values, rejecting the course of history and the decolonization of his native land, the crowning accolade of the Nobel Prize froze Camus, both as a man and a writer, into postures that his death and the subsequent eulogies helped mythologize. He was forever to embody the creator bound to his creation, like Sisyphus to his rock, irrevocably wedded to literature, and devoting every moment to completing an unfinished novel. Deeply shaken between 1952 and 1954, and resolved to change his life and distance himself from decadent literature—as he asserted as early as 1955 and reaffirmed in 1957—he is presented in these biographies as having resumed, by 1959, the course of his frenetic life, torn between contradictory commitments similar to those of his past, as if nothing had occurred during the preceding three years and no vital constraints had influenced his choices.

This study situates Albert Camus within the tumultuous intellectual and political landscape of late 1950s France. During this period, the Algerian conflict and intense ideological debates deeply divided French intellectuals, leaving Camus increasingly isolated. By focusing on the years between 1955 and 1959, André Abbou explores the tension between Camus's public image as a Nobel laureate and his private struggles with his craft. The book examines how Camus sought to redefine his relationship with writing, moving away from conventional literary expectations to confront his own existential and political anxieties.

Abbou's work helps readers question the simplified biographical narratives that often freeze complex authors into rigid myths. It is particularly useful for researchers, students, and admirers of Camus who wish to look beyond the standard portraits of the author of The Stranger and The Myth of Sisyphus. By analyzing the critical years leading up to his sudden death, this volume offers a nuanced perspective on Camus's late-career doubts, his political stances on decolonization, and his search for a new creative direction.