A Happy Death

A Happy Death is a novel written by French author and philosopher Albert Camus. Though originally written in the 1930s, A Happy Death was not published until 1971, 11 years after Camus’s death. The novel explores The Search for Meaning in an inherently meaningless world. Its setting, themes, and even character names are clear forebears to Camus’s more famous novel, The Stranger.

This guide uses an eBook version of the 1995 First Vintage edition, translated by Richard Howard.

Content Warning: The guide contains discussions of suicidal ideation and an offensive quote from the novel about people with disabilities.

Plot Summary

Part 1 of A Happy Death is titled “Natural Death.” Patrice Mersault is a French Algerian clerk who lives and works in French-occupied Algiers. In the opening chapter, he quietly enters the house of a man named Zagreus whose legs have been amputated and who uses a wheelchair. Without any expression, Mersault opens a briefcase containing a gun and a pre-written suicide note. Zagreus watches as Mersault empties a safe containing a large sum of money. Mersault shoots Zagreus in the head and makes the murder look like a death by suicide by placing the gun in Zagreus’s hand. Mersault leaves and returns to his apartment, where he falls asleep.

The story returns to a point several days before the death of Zagreus. Mersault works in his office on the docks. He is not particularly stimulated by his job and spends most days in a familiar routine of waking, going to work, eating lunch with a colleague, and returning to his house to watch people passing by his balcony. He has a girlfriend named Marthe, but he does not particularly love her. They visit the cinema together and Mersault only thinks about the physical pleasure of being with her rather than any emotional bond between them.

At the cinema, a brief interaction between Marthe and a former lover inspires Mersault’s jealousy. He asks her about other former lovers. She mentions a notable local intellectual named Zagreus. Before Zagreus lost the use of his legs, she had a brief love affair with him. Now, he spends most of his time alone reading. He is known to be a wealthy man, and Marthe still occasionally visits him. Mersault, still feeling jealous, asks to be introduced to Zagreus. Marthe agrees.

Mersault and Zagreus strike up an unlikely relationship. Though neither man is particularly fond of the other, they talk for a long time about philosophical ideas. They discuss whether a person can truly understand themselves and be happy at the same time, and whether money is an aid or an impediment to happiness. Zagreus describes how he became wealthy and depressed. When young, he decided to work hard and build up a small fortune through possibly illicit means. Just as he was happy with his wealth, he lost both his legs and couldn’t pursue the dreams and ambitions that his fortune would allow. Instead, he became depressed and reclusive, spending all his time reading. He spends no money and thinks often about suicide, though he can never quite bring himself to fire the gun that he keeps in his safe. He has already written his suicide note. Zagreus implies that he wants Mersault to kill him. He says that Mersault can take the fortune and do with it as he pleases. Mersault leaves, thinking about the offer. He follows through on the plan, as shown in the opening chapter. Taking the money, he travels to Prague and abandons Marthe.

Part 2 of A Happy Death is titled “Conscious Death.” Mersault travels to Prague but cannot settle. He is haunted by Zagreus’s death and is unable to find happiness with his newfound fortune. Contacting some old friends, he returns to Algiers and lives for a short while with three young women. By isolating themselves from the world, the people in the house hope to find happiness. Despite the idyllic setting, Mersault is not pleased. He craves solitude and decides to leave the house and move to a small village in the Chenoua, a mountain range in the rural outskirts of Algiers. He marries a woman named Lucienne in Algiers but tells her that he does not love her; she may only come to visit him intermittently.

In the Chenoua, Mersault befriends a local doctor named Bernard who introduces him to the community. Mersault spends his days alone and notices his own indifference to the world around him. He passes the time and occupies his days so as not to think about the sins of his past. His friends visit, including Lucienne. During their visit, Mersault falls sick. Over the coming months, his sickness grows worse. On the eve of another of Lucienne’s visits, he falls down and spends the night in a feverish state. By the morning, Lucienne has arrived and Bernard has diagnosed Mersault with a failing heart. At Mersault’s request, the doctor gives him a vial of adrenaline so that he will at least be conscious when he dies. Mersault is overcome by his sickness and dies with Lucienne beside him.