19-02-2007, 01:22
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A Prince
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Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 65309
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The Book Bohemian Rhapsody is About
I am just listening to Five Live. They talking about 1st lines in books. A fella phoned in and mentioned a french title. The Cure wrote Killing an Arab about it and so did Queen with Bohemian Rhapsody.
Ah they just mentioned it again. In English it's called The Outsider. Sounds a bit apt. Albert Camus i know the name. I think i've read one of his. Actually my mum and dad had this about the place
Quote:
The novel tells the story of an alienated man, Meursault, who eventually commits a murder and waits to be executed for it. The book uses an Algerian setting, drawn from Camus' own upbringing.
At the start of the novel, Meursault attends his mother's funeral, where he does not express any emotions. The novel goes on to document the next few days of his life, through the first person point-of-view. In these days, he befriends one of his neighbors, Raymond Sintès. He aids Raymond in dismissing one of his Arab mistresses. Later, the two confront the woman's brothers on a beach and Raymond gets cut in the resulting knife fight. Meursault afterwards goes back to the beach and shoots one of them, in response to the glare of the sun. "The Arab" is killed. Meursault then fires four more times at the dead body.
At the trial, the prosecution focuses on the inability or unwillingness of Meursault to cry at his mother's funeral, considered suspect by the authorities. The killing of the Arab apparently is less important than whether Meursault is capable of remorse. The argument follows that if Meursault is incapable of remorse, he should be considered a dangerous misanthrope and subsequently executed to prevent him from doing it again, and making him an example to those considering murder.
As the novel comes to a close, Meursault meets with a chaplain, and is enraged by the chaplain's insistence that he turn to God. The novel ends with Meursault recognizing the universe's indifference for humankind. The final lines echo his new realization: "As if that blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself — so like a brother, really — I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again. For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate." (Excerpt from Matthew Ward's translation)
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stranger_(novel)
Sounds kewl. Im away to download it 
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