The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt

I first became interested in Albert Camus after reading a quote from The Rebel online. "I rebel, therefore we exist" was the quote, and I must admit that, after reading the book, there has never been anything truer written. When I was in a bookstore a few months ago I found a copy of The Rebel, which is apparently a rare sight these days, since The Rebel is often ignored. Camus is one of the most famous writers of the 20th century, so why would one of his masterpieces be ignored? It has been ignored, from what I can gather, because it is a philosophical work in which Camus pulls no punches and examines thoroughly why the excessive crime and violence of our era exist. Camus explains how, in both philosophy and politics, the reigning attitude has been one of nihilism for the past two centuries. This nihilism, being necessarily without an aim, leads to dictatorship and gross amounts of suffering for humans, no matter what principles it claims on the surface. Camus systematically destroys those who have used the philosophies of Hegel, Nietzsche, Marx, surrealism, u.s.w., to justify their murderous plots. Camus proposes that instead of nihilism and murder, we take to heart the ancient concepts of moderation and responsibility. Camus' destruction of modern governents and his proposals of these ancient ideas seem to have made this book unpopular. In this era of oppression, it is easy to ignore what offends us or makes us think. Camus gives the reader no choice. He must either raise a defiant fist to the giants of power, or he must give way to these minds that are utterly without scruples. I admire Camus deeply because of this--he has summed up the ideas I have been carrying around for years--but some will be deeply hurt by his comments. I leave you with a final thought: everyone is partly to blame for the state of the present and the future. You have the choice to make it either good or bad.

Camus' The Rebel is the first book of his that I had the great pleasure of reading. Eloquent and enlightening, The Rebel speaks to me in a way that no other 20th century philosophical work has, at least in its entirety.The Rebel is both an introduction of new ideas and a history of previous ideas and events: Camus' scholarship is unbelievable in the area of revolt. It spans from early greek history and earlier all the way through to the French Revolution and beyond.I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone concerned with spiritual, historical, or any kind of rebellion - and really to anyone who concerns themself over the human condition.

I wrote my college entrance essay on this book (Let's not say how long ago, but I was accepted.) and just recently went back to reread it and compare my impressions now to my impressions then, when it was one of my favorite books. I found it still holds up as a fine piece of literature as well as an inspiring example of personal courage. As another reader has pointed out, Camus was ostracized, more or less, by the French literary establishment after the book's publication. I still find the chapter on metaphysical rebellion the best. Camus has a fine understanding of the English Romantic poets and what, for many, their rebellion consisted of: "The Byronic hero, incapable of love, or capable only of an impossible love, suffers endlessly. He is solitary, languid, his condition exhausts him. If he wants to feel alive, it must be in the terrible exaltation of a brief and destructive action. To love someone whom one will never see again is to give a cry of exultation as one perishes in the flames of passion. One lives only in and for the moment, in order to achieve 'the brief and vivid union of a tempestuous heart united to the tempest'(Lermentov)" This is as an acute a dissection of the raison d'etre of the "Byronic hero" as I've read in any English criticism (and believe me, I've read a lot!). The passages on Nietzsche are also exquisite. He gets to the root of many of the great thinker's ideas by quoting the lines that come from the heart: "the most painful, the most heartbreaking question, that of the heart that asks itself: where can I feel at home?"-The passages on Milton are exquisite as well.-The whole book is a well-rounded philosophical enterprise that touches both the heart and the mind. This is not sentimentality, as one reviewer contends (such criticisms usually come from those jaded souls who have had their hearts burnt out in grad school). It is decency...unshakable decency, according to the review by the Atlantic on the back cover of my edition. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the wherefores behind man's many different states of rebellion. It is the best and most readable I know of.

Of course, this book has not been totally forgotten, but for what a good piece of work this is, it is largely negelected. Flat out, I find this book Camus' masterpiece and if all his other books were destroyed, this one alone would make him seem genius....Why is this book so good? First, it provided a reading list for me, an American, to learn the basics and the names of some of the most important French and European thinkers in the past five hundred years and an impetus to read them (such that I could agree or disagree with what Camus said about them). Second, the book made me think, and made me question, in the logical, precise, but human way that Camus did (which is an invaluable tool for anyone just starting out in the world). Third, in this book you get to see a great swath of history unfold through one of the greatest writers/minds of the twentieth century. How cool is that?I highly reccomend this book to anyone to read. Especially, though, I recommend this book to anyone just starting out on a path in the social sciences or law (who thinks about 'things that matter....') or to anyone going through post-adolecent pangs of conscience....This is the first book that I'd read of Camus if I were new to him too....

In his novels -- short and to the point -- Camus strove to embody a philosophy. THE REBEL, probably his best, most sustained work, talks about that philosophy at length. He takes something of the same viewpoint as Robert Lindner -- who insisted that the rebellious and protestant in man is what is best in him, not the docile and quiescent -- and explores that viewpoint exhilaratingly and totally. He also does something no modern philosopher or critic has done well, to my mind, which is give de Sade a proper shakedown. (Most intellectuals who have a flirtation with de Sade's writings and pseudo-philosophy -- not all that far removed from Ayn Rand's, come to think of it -- wind up contriving some kind of argument for the man as a martyr of intellectual freedom. Nothing could be further than the truth, and Camus makes a good case for that.) The best thing about the book is its tone -- lofty without being snooty, intellectual without being distant, and passionate without being sentimental. It's not a hard read, and it has the flavor of a conversation with a man who makes you stop and say to yourself, "Yes -- why didn't I think that before, in so many words...?"