The Fall

NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR • One of the most widely read novels of all time—from one of the best-known writers of all time—about a lawyer from Paris who brilliantly illuminates the human condition. 
Elegantly styled, Camus' profoundly disturbing novel of a Parisian lawyer's confessions is a searing study of modern amorality.
Albert Camus’s The Fall (La Chute, 1956) is a haunting and introspective novel that delves deep into themes of guilt, hypocrisy, judgment, and self-deception. Structured as a dramatic monologue, the book presents the confessions of Jean-Baptiste Clamence, a former Parisian lawyer who now resides in Amsterdam. Speaking to an unnamed listener in a dim bar, Clamence recounts his moral decline and his journey toward self-awareness, exposing the contradictions and false virtue that once defined his life. Unlike Camus’s earlier protagonists, such as Meursault in The Stranger or Dr. Rieux in The Plague, Clamence is a deeply flawed and self-critical character. His confession reveals how a single moment—when he failed to save a woman from drowning—shattered his illusion of moral superiority and exposed his inner emptiness. He comes to see that many so-called virtuous actions are driven by vanity, not altruism. Through Clamence’s cynical and ironic voice, Camus explores existentialist and absurdist ideas about human fallibility and the impossibility of pure innocence. The Fall is a powerful psychological and philosophical portrait of a man grappling with the weight of his own conscience, serving as both a critique of modern morality and a mirror held up to the reader's own self-image.