A philosophical novel described by the existentialist Sartre of the same name as "perhaps the most beautiful and least understood" of his works, Albert Camus's The Fall, translated by Robin Buss, is available in the Penguin Modern Classics category.

Jean-Baptiste Clamence is a soul in turmoil. During several drunken nights at a bar in Antwerp, he recounts his story to a random acquaintance. From this successful former lawyer and seemingly model citizen, an intriguing, self-marginalizing catalogue of guilt, hypocrisy, and alienation emerges. The Fall (1956) is a brilliant depiction of a man who has glimpsed the void of his existence. But beyond the depiction of a man's disillusionment, Camus's novel exposes the universal human condition and its absurdities - about our innocence which, once lost, can never be regained.

Albert Camus (1913-60) is the author of a number of the most commercially successful and highly influential works, all published by Penguin. These include The Fall, The Stranger, and The First Man. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957, Camus remains one of the few writers to have shaped the intellectual climate of post-war France, while his fame has spread internationally.

If you liked The Fall, you might also be interested in Jean-Paul Sartre's Nausea, also available in the Penguin Modern Classics category.

"An irresistibly brilliant examination of modern consciousness" - The New York Times

"Camus is the accused, the prosecutor, and the defense attorney himself. The Fall could be called 'The Last Judgment'" - Olivier Todd

Pages: 96, Dimensions: 12.9x12.9cm