Letters

[B]oth a major literary document on one of the greatest authors of our times as well as – thanks to the personality of his correspondent, an extraordinary actress – on the entire artistic life of their era, [and a] testimony to a mad love. Totally romantic, jubilant and agonized, but ending in tragedy

[B]oth a major literary document on one of the greatest authors of our times as well as – thanks to the personality of his correspondent, an extraordinary actress – on the entire artistic life of their era, [and a] testimony to a mad love. Totally romantic, jubilant and agonized, but ending in tragedy

Incandescent … Until now, this collection has remained a fantasy object for Albert Camus specialists. Since, at home, the letter writer rivalled, in his clarity, the novelist

Fabulous ... This correspondence, fired up by radiant love, transports us to the end

Some of the greatest love letters since those of Abelard and Heloise … As we read, we realize that whatever we are learning from these long-dead lovers pales against what we can learn about ourselves. Read this book as a guide to loving and a guide to writing. Read it for sustenance after, as Casarès puts it, “one of those days when the heart weeps, despite all the hopes and joys that might be promised to it”. A dazzling correspondence from long ago, revived in ardent English.

Albert Camus (Author)
Albert Camus (1913-60) grew up in a working-class neighbourhood in Algiers. He studied philosophy at the University of Algiers, and became a journalist. His most important works include The Outsider , The Myth of Sisyphus, The Plague and The Fall . After the occupation of France by the Germans in 1941, Camus became one of the intellectual leaders of the Resistance movement. He was killed in a road accident, and his last unfinished novel, The First Man , appeared posthumously.

Maria Casarès (Author)
Maria Casarès (1922–1996) was a Spanish-born French actress celebrated for her commanding presence on stage and screen. In 1942, she played the lead role on stage in Deirdre of the Sorrows by J. M. Synge and soon after launched her film career in Marcel Carné’s cinematic masterpiece Les Enfants du paradis . She went on to star in Robert Bresson’s Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne and gave perhaps her most memorable performance, as Death, in Jean Cocteau’s Orphée (1950).