(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) From one of the most brilliantand influential thinkers of the twentieth century-two novels, sixshort stories, and a pair of essays in a single volume. In both hisessays and his fiction, Albert Camus (1913--1960) de-ployed hislyric eloquence in defense against despair, providing anaffirmation of the brave assertion of humanity in the face of auniverse devoid of order or meaning. "The Plague"-written in 1947and still profoundly relevant-is a riveting tale of horror,survival, and resilience in the face of a devastating epidemic."The Fall" (1956), which takes the form of an astonishingconfession by a French lawyer in a seedy Amsterdam bar, is ahaunting parable of modern conscience in the face of evil. The sixstories of "Exile and the Kingdom "(1957) represent Camus at theheight of his narrative powers, masterfully depicting hischaracters-from a renegade missionary to an adulterous wife -atdecisive moments of revelation. Set beside their fictionalcounterparts, Camus's famous essays