ste has sentenced himself to the worst fate he could imagine... isolation.Clamence is punishing himself for cowardice, the worst of possible crimes. As with Sartre, Camus viewed a failure to act as a choice to surrender. While The Plague is a story of action against the odds. The Fall is a tale of a man's guilt for not acting. One night in Paris, Jean-Baptiste saw a young woman leaning over the parapet on the Pont-Royal. She jumped into the Seine… and he did nothing. Clamence allowed a young woman to commit a terrible, cowardly act -- suicide. Shortly after, he left his law practice and Paris.Jean-Paul Sartre wrote, one might assume reluctantly after The Rebel's chilly reception, that The Fall was Camus' greatest work of fiction. Sartre and other critics appreciated the depth of character. It is also likely they enjoyed the spectacle of Camus' placing himself before the world. ...
