This document is a proposal by Dustin Brown to travel to Paris and Amsterdam, retracing locations mentioned in Albert Camus' novel The Fall. In Paris, Brown will research at libraries and visit cafes, theaters, and hotels frequented by Camus to better understand the author. He will then travel to Amsterdam, gradually passing through the city's concentric canals as depicted in the novel, visiting specific bars and districts written about. By experiencing these settings firsthand, Brown aims to reveal truths about Camus' life hidden within his fiction and connect the daily routines of the author to his absurdist philosophy expressed in The Fall.

1. Camus’ Fall: An Absurdist’s Declination
A Journey from Paris to Amsterdam
Have you noticed that Amsterdam’s concentric canals resemble the circles of hell? The middle-class hell, of course,
peopled with bad dreams. When one comes from the outside, as one gradually goes through those circles, life—and
hence its crimes—becomes denser, darker. Here, we are in the last circle. —Camus, The Fall
Albert Camus believed, “Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.” The Fall
discusses a series of declinations, the first from upper-class France to the blue-collar slums of the
Netherlands. I will begin my trip in Paris, and end the journey in Amsterdam, mimicking the
voyage of the author and narrator of the novel. I will not only dissect the autobiographical
aspects of The Fall, but the biographical facts hidden in Camus’ writing. Examining the
intertextuality of this work in the physical location of its settings will reveal the extent of truth to
Camus’ fiction.
Access to the American Library in Paris and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France will
enhance my research, along with the rich local history and numerous literary functions in
operation around the city, such as a “Camus Walk” (a tour geared toward literature and Camus’
Paris). Visiting the pubs, theaters, and cafes Camus leisured will not only afford me with a
greater understanding of the man, but generate ample opportunity to study his philosophy and
further my knowledge of the absurdists in 20th-century literature.
While in Paris, I will stay in the Hôtel Madison, Camus’ living quarters when he first
arrived in France, have lunch at Le café de Flore in a booth where heated letters were written to
Jean-Paul Sartre; I can even view a show at Théâtre Antoine where Camus was a frequent
director, actor, and audience member. Paris will surely be the Eden of my trip; however, a
descent is imminent.
Camus spent an extensive amount of time in Amsterdam while writing The Fall, inviting
many to approach the novel as an autobiographical text. I will gradually go through the “circles”
of Amsterdam, retracing the footsteps of the great absurdist. Mexico City, a bar where much
dialogue is delivered in the novel, was an actual pub Camus frequented; there are still ferries that
cross the foggy Zuider Zee, and the Red Light District continues to thrive—all substantial
locations appearing in The Fall.
The recurrence of Camus’ text in philosophy and english classes—as well as his influence
on many of my favorite writers—has instilled within me the importance of his work. Rereading
The Fall while walking in the footsteps of its author will grant me the chance to connect Camus’
daily routine to his expository novel on the human condition.
I thank the committee for their time and consideration.
Dustin Brown