L’Été

After the ideological quarrels provoked by his adversaries over L’Homme révolté, Albert Camus turned to more purely literary work in composing this collection. The pieces that make it up were written between 1939 and 1953, following the rhythm of the places he visited or lived in: Oran, given a fabulous portrait in the essay “Le Minotaure”; Algiers, the city of his youth. The texts, notably the celebrated “Retour à Tipasa”, are marked by a lyricism that places them in the continuity of Noces.

This is one of the smallest deluxe-paper print runs for any work by Camus: by number of copies, it follows the 13 copies of Le Malentendu and Les Justes, the 14 of L’État de siège, the 15 of Le Mythe de Sisyphe and the 21 of Le Minotaure ou la halte d’Oran — which was itself reprinted in L’Été. It should be noted, however, that 10 author’s copies were also printed hors commerce, on alfa mousse paper.

As published.