someone said that Albert Camus it was an “animal without species”. He learned ethics playing soccer in the streets of Algeria, he almost died of tuberculosis, he embraced communism and distanced himself from its dogma –breaking with Jean-Paul Sartre–, he married Francine Fauré and went crazy for the actress María Casares, he signed classics like ‘Plague’ Y ‘Abroad’won the Nobel Prize for Literature and died at the age of 46 in a traffic accident. Elisabeth Maisondieu-Camus She is the daughter of Catherine, one of her twins and the author of ‘Albert Camus. Solitario y Solidario’ (Editorial Platform), a photographic album that walks proudly around the world.
At what age did you find out that you were Camus’ granddaughter?
When I was 13 years old, my mother told us that her father was a writer.
So dry?
He left out that he was a celebrity.
“My mother suffered from her father’s fame and did not tell us that he was a celebrity”
Weird, no?
He wanted to protect my brother Antoine and me from that weight. She suffered the fame of her father. We lived in Nice and did not frequent intellectual circles. We simply loved the sea and the sun.
Perhaps her silence was due to her own mother’s pain.
I met Grandma Francine, she died when I was 8 years old. She lived in Paris, but she had an apartment in Cannes and she came to visit us. We adored her. In front of us she never spoke of her husband.
“At the age of 14 I read ‘The Foreigner’ and it left a mark on me that was more sensual than intellectual”
So, when did you become aware of the importance of being called Camus?
When I was 14 years old, my mother asked me to read something –I wasn’t a great reader– and I chose ‘The Foreigner’. I had the impression of connecting with him through his description of the Mediterranean. He left a sensual imprint on me, not an intellectual one.
Did you later expand your concept?
Yes. The most extraordinary thing about him is his humanity, his will to improve the conditions of those who have the most difficulties.
“You cannot die without first having helped others to live.”
“I rise up, therefore we exist & rdquor ;, he also wrote. It is a very contemporary idea, essential for our individualistic societies. She lived for the others to be better. I try not to be unworthy of that principle.
“The Camus have in common an instinctive reaction to the misfortune of others”
Is there a family Camusian ethic?
It would be presumptuous of me. In any case, my mother, my brother and I have in common an instinctive reaction to the misfortune of others.
In the 1950s he was criticized by the cultural elite.
It was not understood. He was concerned with humans over ideological questions: the being is there, with his pain and his joy, while society changes. Time has given it a reason. Today there is more talk of my grandfather than of Sartre.
“If he were alive I would ask him if he loved me. I think he would say yes”
“Freedom is the right to tell the truth,” he maintained.
And he felt that he was not free because he had no right to say it out loud.
If you were alive, what would you ask him?
If you love me
Really?
I think he would tell me yes. He was a very cheerful and affectionate man, very different from the tortured existentialists. He was inside life. I would also like him to tell me about his mother, Catalina Sintès, originally from Menorca, who was widowed when he was one year old, illiterate and almost deaf.
And wouldn’t you like to know about his “dark side”?
Surely he was referring to his flaws.
“He never left my grandmother Francine. At home we always hear good things about María Casares”
To his clamorous infidelity –15 years and 865 letters– with the actress María Casares.
He never left my grandmother Francine, who went through really difficult times. At home we always hear good things about Maria. She was like she was part of the family. Even my mother, out of respect, visited her after my grandmother passed away. In September all the correspondence between them will be published.
Did you ever want to follow in his footsteps?
No. I lead a simple life. I am a lawyer specializing in intellectual property law, I raise my daughter, I help carry on the Camus legacy with my mother, who is 77 years old and is delicate. I also do theater.
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Have you performed any work by Camus?
‘The misunderstanding’, in the role of Martha. It was a dream that director François Teyssier made a reality. It was very, very exciting.