El extranjero

Albert Camus THE STRANGER
THE
Stranger
By ALBERT CAMUS
Translated from the French
by Stuart Gilbert
VINTAGE BOOKS
A Division of Random House
NEW YORK
1 Albert Camus THE STRANGER
VINTAGE BOOKS
are published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
and Random House, Inc.
Copyright 1942 by Librairie Gallimard as L’ÉTRANGER
Copyright 1946 by ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC. All rights reserved. Nopart of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a magazine or newspaper. Manufactured in the United States of America. Distributed in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
2 Albert Camus THE STRANGER
ContentsContents.......................................................................................................................3
Part One........................................................................................................................4
I................................................................................................................................4II.............................................................................................................................14
III............................................................................................................................18
IV.............................................................................................................................24V..............................................................................................................................28
VI.............................................................................................................................32
Part Two......................................................................................................................40I...............................................................................................................................40
II.............................................................................................................................46
III............................................................................................................................52IV.............................................................................................................................62
V..............................................................................................................................68
About the Author........................................................................................................77
3 Albert Camus THE STRANGER
Part One
I
MOTHER died today. Or,maybe, yesterday; I can’t be sure. The telegram from the Home says: YOUR MOTHER PASSED AWAY. FUNERAL TOMORROW. DEEP SYMPATHY. Which leaves the matter doubtful; it could have been yesterday.
The Home for Aged Persons is at Marengo, some fifty miles from Algiers. With the two o’clock bus I should get there well before nightfall. Then I can spend the night there, keeping the usual vigil beside thebody, and be back here by tomorrow evening. I have fixed up with my employer for two days’ leave; obviously, under the circumstances, he couldn’t refuse. Still, I had an idea he looked annoyed, and I said, without thinking: “Sorry, sir, but it’s not my fault, you know.”
Afterwards it struck me I needn’t have said that. I had no reason to excuse myself; it was up to him to express his sympathyand so forth. Probably he will do so the day after tomorrow, when he sees me in black. For the present, it’s almost as if Mother weren’t really dead. The funeral will bring it home to me, put an official seal on it, so to speak. ...
I took the two-o’clock bus. It was a blazing hot afternoon. I’d lunched, as usual, at Céleste’s restaurant. Everyone was most kind, and Céleste said to me, “There’s...