“First of all, we must be silent – to abolish the common and have the courage for self-criticism. To balance a careful cultivation of the body with full awareness of life. To abandon every claim and dedicate ourselves to a double work of liberation – regarding money and regarding our vanities and pettiness. To live according to the rules of the game. Two years from an entire life is not too much to think about just one thing. We must definitively neutralize all previous situations and put all our strength into not forgetting anything first and then to learn patiently.”
Albert Camus confronted both the world and himself. With curiosity for everyone and everything, he narrates an event, “captures” a sensation, records – to return later to them – ideas and memories. The notes concern his childhood years, initially, his readings of that time. The thoughts, then, that will weave the themes from which Happy Death will emerge, then The Stranger, excerpts from The Myth of Sisyphus and The Plague, which foreshadow The Rebel.
Our Notebooks half-open the door to Camus’ inner life, in an atmosphere of intimacy that illuminates his work, while at the same time they serve as a wonderful testimony to his relationship with the world.
