La mort heureuse

“I am certain that one cannot be happy without money. That is all. I like neither ease nor romanticism. I like to see things clearly. Well, I have noticed that among certain elite beings there is a kind of spiritual snobbery in believing that money is not necessary for happiness. It is foolish, it is false, and to a certain extent, it is cowardly.”

In 1938, Albert Camus abandoned his first novel, A Happy Death, to begin writing The Stranger. This first novelistic project, published posthumously, is nonetheless rich in luminous descriptions of nature and nonconformist reflections. The hero, Meursault, desperately seeks happiness, even at the cost of a crime. His journey is fed by Camus's difficult and ardent youth; his choices and his thoughts foreshadow the stories and essays to come.