The Stranger
Decide its fate
The record
Time
An eveningA season178 pages, about 4 hours: half the length of a typical book on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climbA telegram from a retirement home announces Meursault’s mother’s death, and her funeral follows.
What it gives
Plot and actionIdeas to live byIn 10 reviews from critics and book blogs, 3 credit the plot and 9 credit the ideas or a change in how they live.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else doesThree reviews set it against Crime and Punishment and one against The Trial, both longer than its 178 pages.
The case for it
on Meursault’s hollowness
“The perspective works well to show the hollowness that Meursault so often feels.”
a book blog on the restraint
“strength of the storytelling lies in its restraint, in its focus on cause and effect”
a Substack review on Meursault’s trial
“Meursault’s greatest crime is not murder, it is emotional disobedience.”
a Substack review on the length
“Albert Camus’s The Stranger may be a short novel, but it definitely packs a punch.”
five stars · a book blog
The case against
on Meursault’s inner life
“Meursault narrates and shares his thoughts, but he has almost no inner life.”
a Substack review on the unnamed Arab
“not for killing a colonized Arab in colonial Algeria but to honor Camus’ thesis”
Gregory McNamee · Kirkus Reviews, 2022 on the background details
“irrelevant details about background conversations and stains on the wall are given as much weight”
a book blog on the novel’s reputation
“Camus’s novella is increasingly seen as dated and irrelevant, if not openly racist.”
Jaspreet Singh Boparai · Quillette, 2026
