The Fall (Penguin Modern Classics)

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Olson, Ray. Review of The Fall, and Other Poems. The Booklist 98, no. 3 (October 1, 2001): 278. A short, favorable review of the book that mentions its religious overtones. Camus employs symbolism and allegory throughout the novel to enhance its philosophical depth. The city of Amsterdam, with its network of canals and labyrinthine streets, mirrors Clamence's psychological journey into the depths of guilt and self-deception. The bell tower in the center of the city serves as a constant reminder of judgment and the consequences of one's choices. Joseph Bottum, editor of First Things, former books and arts editor of The Weekly Standard, and host of Book Talk, a syndicated radio program, has published articles and poetry in numerous leading newspapers and magazines. “The Fall” was first published in First Things, a journal of religion, culture, and public life, in 1998. It is a lyrical poem of ninety-nine lines, unrhymed but structured. Each line varies from seven to ten syllables. The meter is mostly pronounced and regular, at times suggesting rhythms of iambic tetrameter or pentameter. Pervasive use of alliteration and assonance give the poem a classic character. The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23) and October’s pall follows September’s fire. Here the tree roots entangle sin and death. November is the last pause before winter renders final judgment on human activity. However, in this image of desolation is the seed of hope. The trees are a “thousand leafless crosses” that suggest a new intervention of God. The “lovely, silent, finished, clean” embrace of snow will quench the fire of the Fall. Spring will bring God’s compassion and “what mercy after such forgiveness?” Sources for Further Study Linker, Damon. The Theocons: Secular America Under Siege. New York: Doubleday, 2006. Controversial description of the rising influence of religion in American culture and politics, which focuses on the journal First Things and features a lengthy quote from Bottum on public religiosity.

Jean-Baptiste Clamence - refined, handsome, forty, a former successful lawyer - is in turmoil. Over several drunken nights he regales a chance acquaintance with his story. He talks of parties and his debauchery, of Parisian nights and the Aegean sea, and, ultimately, of his self-loathing. One of Albert Camus' most famous works, The Fall is a brilliant, complex portrayal of lost innocence and the true face of man. Read more Details If you enjoyed The Fall, you might like Jean-Paul Sartre's Nausea, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. One of the central ideas explored in The Fall is the concept of moral responsibility. Clamence confesses to posing as a "judge-penitent," an imaginary role in which he presumes to pass judgment on others while simultaneously confessing his own faults. This moral duality reflects Camus' belief in the ambiguous nature of human actions and the potential for each individual to face moral and ethical dilemmas.

Set in Amsterdam, The Fall consists of a series of dramatic monologues by the self-proclaimed "judge-penitent" Jean-Baptiste Clamence, as he reflects upon his life to a stranger. Royce, Barbara C. (1966). "La Chute and Saint Genet: The Question of Guilt". The French Review 39 (5): 709–716. Albert Camus is a French writer whose work is known across the globe. Several of his pieces have been translated into English over the years, and you’ve probably already heard of his most famous novel, The Stranger, or, The Outsider. Jonas” ends with a celebrated verbal ambiguity: The painter-hero of the story, after long meditation, translates his thought to canvas by means of a single word, but it is impossible to discern whether that word is “solitary” or “solidary.” It is tempting to conclude, using that short story as analogue, that the ambiguity of The Fall is also deliberate and that Camus meant his work both as private confession and public condemnation. Those two meanings, the one private and the other public, are surely intended to combine retrospectively in the reader’s mind to form Camus’s universal condemnation of man’s moral bankruptcy. As the title is meant to suggest, The Fall is a modern parable about Original Sin and the Fall of Man. The book also touches on the theory of absurdism, which is the idea that the human existence is a result of the attempt to draw meaning from our lives, and the pointlessness of trying to find that meaning, as it doesn’t exist. It’s a mouthful (and honestly quite depressing), I know, but I mentioned that Camus was a philosopher!

We are all exceptional cases. We all want to appeal against something! Each of us insists on being innocent at all cost, even if he has to accuse the whole human race and heaven itself.’you know this person, we all know this person, this particular kind of person. a real do-gooder, a person of the people, doling out the goodwill and the spare change and the spare arm to help that blind person across the street. you know the satisfaction they get from looking humble, acting humble, being anything but humble at the heart of them. reveling in their goodness; reveling in their superiority. selflessness disguising selfishness. this person loves 'em and leaves 'em too, except "love" is too strong, too emotional a word to describe the shallow physical connection that leaves out any potential for a genuine connection. this person looks at other people like they would look at a collection of amusing bugs. this person sees a person needing help but if it costs them something, anything, even just a bit of delay on their way to something super important, then they are going to pass that person by. this person doesn't actually like people all that much; this person despises them, more than a little. This sentence reveals Clamence’s sadness that despite his love for himself and even being judged by others, he knows that he will never stop judging himself. That is one of the true ‘falls’ of the novel, in which you come to a point in your life where you have a realisation that you are a person with flaws, faced with your own guilt from your actions and importantly too, your inactions. By the time Jean-Baptiste’s confession is over, you should realize that in fact the Judge-penitent is you. The story was yours. It is time to begin your own confession. It is time to stop being Kierkegaard’s A, and to be the B. To polarize yourself. Time to take responsibility and stare into the abyss. Do you realize what that would mean for you? Global warming? Your fault. Hunger? Poverty? Violence? Guilty, guilty, and, guilty.