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This is the first full-length study in English of Camus's life-long fascination with the works of the Russian writer Feodor Dostoevsky. The purpose of the book is to demonstrate the ways in which Dostoevsky's thought and fiction served to stimulate and crystallize Camus's own thinking. Davison lucidly identifies the lines of divergence and counter-arguments which Camus produced as answers to the challenge of Dostoevsky's Christian/Tzarist vision of life.
The traditional methods of comparative literary criticism are jettisoned in favour of the more exciting claim that Camus's literary and philosophical texts can be read as precise and detailed replies to some of Dostoevsky's central beliefs about immortality, religion and politics. The study ranges freely over the entirety of the works of both major writers.
Scholarly and thoughtfully written . . . Davison's book, which also includes a comprehensive bibliography and index, amounts to an invaluable and interesting contribution to Camus studies.
Ray Davison is Lecturer in French, University of Exeter. His published work includes an edition of Albert Camus's L'Etranger and Simone de Beauvoir's Une Mort très douce.
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Camus and Dostoevsky: an Encounter in Profile
2. Dostoevsky and the Absurd Novel
3. Suicide and Logic: Camus's use of Dostoevsky's 'Judgement' and 'Moralite un peu tardive' in Le Mythe de Sisyphe.
4. Camus and Dostoevsky's Revels
5. Freedom and the Man-God: Camus and Kirilov in Le Mythe de Sisyphe
6. Two Tzars of the Absurd: Stavroguine and Ivan in Le Mythe de Sisyphe
7. Ivan and Metaphysical Revolt: the Shadow of the Grand Inquisitor
8. Camus and Les Possedes: Nihilism and Historical Revolt
9. From the Last to the First Man: The Challenge of The Underground
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index