Caligula by Albert Camus
Author in Depth: Albert Camus Caligula (1939) Translated from the French by Stuart Gilbert My Quick Take: This play is absurd in more ways than one: it is part of Camus’ exploration of his philosophy of the absurd, and it also shows the decidedly non-philosophical absurdity of the corruption of absolute power. *** A late addition to my Author in Depth project to read select works of Albert Camus , Caligula is a play that he wrote as one of three works in his Cycle of the Absurd, his earliest writing. The other pieces are The Stranger and The Myth of Sisyphus , both of which I’ve recently read and blogged about. I wasn’t going to read Caligula , his play first written in 1939, revised several times and first performed in 1944, but I thought, what the heck? My disclaimer: What follows is a non-philosopher's take on this play and philosophy in general, but that's the point of this project. The play is a quick read, but I found myself a touch nonplussed on reading it through, bec...
