This frightful separation will at least have made us feel more than ever the constant need we have for each other. I knew it before and I know it even better now. I bless my need and I await you, full of force and passion, yes, I await you, my beloved and ardent one, my little girl, dear lover!

Albert Camus was born on November 7, 1913, and today is the centenary of the man who wrote The Stranger and The Myth of Sisyphus. As it happens, Camus was also an enthusiastic author of love letters. To judge by this book, he should have won the Nobel prize for his achievements as un grand séducteur. Or perhaps the Ig-Nobel prize, given that he was married while he conducted his numerous affairs (often simultaneously). But reading excerpts from  the letters, one finds it difficult to be angry with him. In The Myth of Sisyphus, he wrote of the “Don Juan” type: It is because he loves them with the same passion and each time with his whole self that he must repeat his gift and his profound quest…

He’s still seducing women to this very day. Just look at his picture.

Camus always denied the existentialist label, preferring to describe his philosophy as Absurdism, living to the fullest while rejecting hope. Beautiful Man, I hope that wherever you are, they have soft beds, lovely ladies, and plenty of Gauloises for afterward.

Another review of the book by Olivier Todd

Related articles

• Albert Camus – Life and Philosophy (noblenovella.wordpress.com)
• Albert Camus (aaronvergult.wordpress.com)