Jason Herbeck co-wrote and served as Academic Advisor for the entry on Albert Camus’ novel, La Chute (The Fall), published recently in the Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism series by Gale, a Cengage Company, in association with Layman Poupard Publishing. Published shortly before French-Algerian writer Albert Camus (1913-1960) was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature, The Fall is among the last pieces of fiction he completed. As described in the entry, The Fall is structured as a monologue delivered by Jean-Baptiste Clamence, a French expatriate lawyer living in Amsterdam who frequents a bar named Mexico City. As he talks to an unnamed, unheard listener, Clamence continually probes his own conscience, with his so-called confession offering a compelling psychological study of modern guilt, witnessing and amorality.
As Academic Advisor for the entry, Herbeck provided an annotated list of published critical essays, chapters and excerpts that represent the best scholarship on The Fall, as well as the best print biography and bibliography on Camus, provided a summary of the major trends in scholarship on the novel, suggested and annotated a primary source excerpt from the novel, and reviewed the completed entry prior to publication.