Albert Camus, L'Exil et le royaume [Exile and the Kingdom]

Boudraa Nabil (Oregon State University)

Ed. by Hugo Azerad, University of Cambridge
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.07: French Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kate Averis (University of Western Australia), Hugo Azerad (University of Cambridge), Patrick ffrench (King's College London), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Akane Kawakami (Birkbeck, University of London), Siobhán McIlvanney (King's College London), Sinan Richards (King's College London), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1958

Places

France (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Story Collection

Resources

Context and relevance

Albert Camus’s collection of short stories, titled Exile and the Kingdom, is more relevant today than ever. These stories were written sixty-two years ago, but they tackle essential existential issues regarding most modern societies today. The alienation people feel in an age of advanced technology, globalization, and the slow disappearance of spirituality, finds resonance in Camus’s work as a whole, and particularly in this collection of stories.

The two words in the title, “exile” and “kingdom”, which must be read in their existentialist meaning, carry the entire substance of the six stories forming the book. “Exile”, in the large sense of the word, is then examined in six different manners, while “kingdom” refers to the bare and free life that one must have in order to be awakened and come back from...

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2381 words

Citation: Nabil, Boudraa. "L'Exil et le royaume". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 January 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11626, accessed 09 June 2026.]

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