Albert Camus' laconic masterpiece about a Frenchman who murders an Arab in colonial Algeria is famous in its time for diagnosing a state of alienation & spiritual exhaustion which summed up the mood of the mid-twentieth century Today more than fifty years after its first appearance we can see that this early success was no passing fashion The Outsider continues to speak to us of ultimate things with the force of a parable & the excitement of a thriller & remains one of the most widely read & influential classics of the century