Degenerate

The fall

The Fall is Jean-Baptiste Clamence's poignant monologue, a direct assault on human nature. In the Mexico City bar in Amsterdam, Clamence, who calls himself a "judge-penitent," reflects on his past. He was once a successful lawyer, living a life of prestige and wealth. But one night, as he crossed a bridge, a woman jumped into the river behind him and committed suicide. His failure to save her plunged him into self-reproach, thus beginning his descent. He realized that his past was an illusion and came to understand the incurable depravity of human nature.

In his novels, plays, essays, and treatises, Camus profoundly revealed human loneliness in an alien world, the increasing alienation between individuals and themselves, and the inevitability of sin and death. However, while revealing the absurdity of the world, he was neither despairing nor despondent. He advocated for resistance in the face of absurdity and upholding truth and justice in despair. He pointed out a path of free humanism to the world, beyond Christianity and Marxism. His courage in confronting a bleak life and his fearless spirit of "knowing it's impossible yet doing it anyway" made him, after World War II, not only in France but in Europe and ultimately worldwide, the spokesman for his generation and a spiritual mentor for the next.

2026-01-15

上海译文出版社

136

9787580701350