Literature

The Myth of Sisyphus · Le Mythe de Sisyphe

Albert Camus

Translated by Justin O’Brien

“Il faut imaginer Sisyphe heureux.” Camus on the absurd, on suicide, and on the stone that always rolls back down. In French and English.

Public domain in Canada and Hong Kong, where copyright ends fifty years after the author’s death. It may still be under copyright elsewhere: not for use or redistribution outside Canada or Hong Kong.

• # Le Mythe de Sisyphe
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• _Title:_ Le mythe de Sisyphe _Date of first publication:_ 1942 _Author:_ Albert Camus (1913-1960) _Date first posted:_ Sep. 13, 2016 _Date last updated:_ Sep. 13, 2016 Faded Page eBook #20160912
• This ebook was produced by: Marcia Brooks, Cindy Beyer & the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net
• L E M Y T H E D E S I S Y P H E Essai sur l’absurde
• Le mythe de Sisyphe
• par Albert Camus
• LES ESSAIS X I I
• [Illustration]
• Tous droits de traduction, de reproduction et d’adaptation réservés pour tous les pays, y compris l’U.R.S.S. © 1942, Éditions Gallimard.
• ## TABLE
• UN RAISONNEMENT ABSURDE 13 L’absurde et le suicide 15 Les murs absurdes 24 Le suicide philosophique 46 La liberté absurde 73
• L’HOMME ABSURDE 91 Le don juanisme 97 La comédie 106 La conquête 115
• LA CRÉATION ABSURDE 125 Philosophie et roman 127 Kirilov 140 La création sans lendemain 151
• ## LE MYTHE DE SISYPHE 159
• _Appendice_
• ## L’ESPOIR ET L’ABSURDE DANS L’ŒUVRE DE FRANZ KAFKA 167
• ## A P A S C A L P I A
• _O mon âme, n’aspire pas à la vie_ _immortelle, mais épuise le champ du_ _possible._ P I N D A R E, 3^{e} Pythique.
• _Les pages qui suivent traitent d’une sensibilité absurde qu’on peut trouver éparse dans le siècle—et non d’une philosophie absurde que notre temps, à proprement parler, n’a pas connue. Il est donc d’une honnêteté élémentaire de marquer, pour commencer, ce qu’elles doivent à certains esprits contemporains. Mon intention est si peu de le cacher qu’on les verra cités et commentés tout au long de l’ouvrage._
• _Mais il est utile de noter, en même temps, que l’absurde, pris jusqu’ici comme conclusion, est considéré dans cet essai comme un point de départ. En ce sens, on peut dire qu’il y a du provisoire dans mon commentaire: on ne saurait préjuger de la position qu’il engage. On trouvera seulement ici la description, à l’état pur, d’un mal de l’esprit. Aucune métaphysique, aucune croyance n’y sont mêlées pour le moment. Ce sont les limites et le seul parti pris de ce livre._
• # The Myth Of Sisyphus
• The Myth Of Sisyphus, Albert Camus
• Contents Preface The Myth Of Sisyphus Part I, An Absurd Reasoning Part I, Chapter I, Absurdity and Suicide Part I, Chapter II, Absurd Walls Part I, Chapter III, Philosophical Suicide Part I, Chapter IV, Absurd Freedom
• Part II, The Absurd Man Part II, Chapter I, Don Juanism Part II, Chapter II, Drama Part II, Chapter III, Conquest
• Part III, Absurd Creation Part III, Chapter I, Philosophy and Fiction Part III, Chapter II, Kirilov Part III, Chapter III, Ephemeral Creation
• Part IV, The Myth Of Sisyphus
• Preface
• For me “The Myth of Sisyphus” marks the beginning of an idea which I was to pursue in The Rebel. It attempts to resolve the problem of suicide, as The Rebel attempts to resolve that of murder, in both cases without the aid of eternal values which, temporarily perhaps, are absent or distorted in contemporary Europe. The fundamental subject of “The Myth of Sisyphus” is this: it is legitimate and necessary to wonder whether life has a meaning; therefore it is legitimate to meet the problem of suicide face to face. The answer, underlying and appearing through the paradoxes which cover it, is this: even if one does not believe in God, suicide is not legitimate.
• Written fifteen years ago, in 1940, amid the French and European disaster, this book declares that even within the limits of nihilism it is possible to find the means to proceed beyond nihilism. In all the books I have written since, I have attempted to pursue this direction. Although “The Myth of Sisyphus” poses mortal problems, it sums itself up for me as a lucid invitation to live and to create, in the very midst of the desert. It has hence been thought possible to append to this philosophical argument a series of essays, of a kind I have never ceased writing, which are somewhat marginal to my other books.
• In a more lyrical form, they all illustrate that essential fluctuation from assent to refusal which, in my view, defines the artist and his difficult calling. The unity of this book, that I should like to be apparent to American readers as it is to me, resides in the reflection, alternately cold and impassioned, in which an artist may indulge as to his reasons for living and for creating. After fifteen years I have progressed beyond several of the positions which are set down here; but I have remained faithful, it seems to me, to the exigency which prompted them. That is why this hook is in a certain sense the most personal of those I have published in America. More than the others, therefore, it has need of the indulgence and understanding of its readers.
• —Albert Camus, Paris, March 1955
• for PASCAL PIA
• O my soul, do not aspire to immortal life, but exhaust the limits of the possible.
• —Pindar, Pythian iii
• The pages that follow deal with an absurd sensitivity that can be found widespread in the age—and not with an absurd philosophy which our time, properly speaking, has not known. It is therefore simply fair to point out, at the outset, what these pages owe to certain contemporary thinkers. It is so far from my intention to hide this that they Will be found cited and commented upon throughout this work.
• But it is useful to note at the same time that the absurd, hitherto taken as a conclusion, is considered in this essay as a starting-point. In this sense it may be said that there is something provisional in my commentary: one cannot prejudge the position it entails. There will be found here merely the description, in the pure state, of an intellectual malady. No metaphysic, no belief is involved in it for the moment. These are the limits and the only bias of this book. Certain personal experiences urge me to make this clear.
• The Myth Of Sisyphus
• Part I, An Absurd Reasoning
• Part I, Chapter I, Absurdity and Suicide
• [27] Ceci ne vaut évidemment que pour la version inachevée du _Château_ que nous a laissée Kafka. Mais il est douteux que l’écrivain eût rompu dans les derniers chapitres l’unité de ton du roman.
• _Dépôt légal: 1^{er} trimestre 1942._ _N^{o} d’Éd. 10065.—N^{o} d’Imp. 7642._ _Imprimé en France._
• Note de Transcription
• Les mots mal orthographiés et les erreurs d'impression ont été corrigées. Lorsque plusieurs orthographes se produisent, l'utilisation de la majorité a été employé.
• Ponctuation a été maintenue sauf si évidente erreurs d'impression se produisent.
• The End