A Short Guide to Towns Without a Past
By (Author) Albert Camus
Penguin Books Ltd
Penguin Classics
15th July 2025
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Fiction in translation
Literary essays
Metaphysical / philosophical fiction
Paperback
128
Width 111mm, Height 181mm, Spine 15mm
150g
90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books Best known for his existentialist novel The Outsider, set in French-occupied Algeria, Albert Camus was profoundly influenced by the landscapes, towns and traditions of his youth. Selected here are some of his finest personal essays about Algeria and its environs, including the luminous 'Nuptials at Tipasa', one of his earliest works where he developed the themes that would inform his later philosophy- to thrive now, without hope for paradise, as mortal life alone can be worthwhile.
Albert Camus (1913-60) grew up in a working-class neighbourhood in Algiers. He studied philosophy at the University of Algiers, and became a journalist. His most important works include The Outsider, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Plague and The Fall. After the occupation of France by the Germans in 1941, Camus became one of the intellectual leaders of the Resistance movement. He was killed in a road accident, and his last unfinished novel, The First Man, appeared posthumously.