Book · 1942
The Myth of Sisyphus
by Albert Camus
A 1942 essay that opens with the question of whether life is worth living and ends by insisting Sisyphus is happy.
What does Reddit think of The Myth of Sisyphus?
R/askphilosophy owns this book: 157 of those mentions live there, with threads regularly deploying it as the rebuttal to Schopenhauer's pessimism and as the corrective to Sartre's 'false hope.' The ↑198 comment carefully positions Camus against Existentialism proper — grouped under the umbrella, hostile to the label. R/philosophy's 54 mentions skew more personal; the ↑132 comment reads simply: 'Camus saved me from deep depression and suicidal thoughts when my life had lost all meaning.' The book's core move — reframing the absurd as something to embrace rather than resolve — lands differently depending on the thread. R/Stoicism (8 mentions) recruits it to underwrite the Commander Data line about struggle mattering more than outcome. Criticism surfaces mainly as a translation complaint and a charge that Camus cheats the logic at the essay's conclusion. Annual volume peaked at 51 in 2020, has since settled lower.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · Absurdism and the refusal of philosophical suicide
- · The absurd hero as a framework for meaning without transcendence
- · Camus vs. Sartre: where existentialism ends and absurdism begins
- · Suicide as the only serious philosophical question
- · Revolt, freedom, and passion as responses to a silent universe
Common praise
- + The reframing of futility as something to own rather than escape actually shifts how people think about their own circumstances, per multiple r/philosophy testimonials.
- + R/askphilosophy treats it as the necessary text for anyone doing meta-ethics who hasn't encountered the absurd as a formal position.
- + The Sisyphus chapter delivers a concrete image that readers quote in threads years later without having to re-explain it.
- + Multiple commenters, including the ↑132 r/philosophy post, credit it with pulling them out of genuine despair — not as inspiration but as argument.
Common criticism
- − Several r/askphilosophy threads argue Camus smuggles in an unearned leap at the end: the logic doesn't actually get you to happiness.
- − Readers new to philosophy find the prose elliptical enough to need a guide thread before the ideas land.
- − R/Stoicism's 8 mentions borrow the framework loosely without engaging the essay's actual argument against consolation.
Who it's for
Read it if you've hit the Schopenhauer or Sartre wall and need a third position that doesn't involve God or pure self-creation. R/askphilosophy recommends it specifically to anyone asking about meta-ethics or the grounds for continuing to live — the ↑234 comment calls it a fantastic piece for exactly that reader. If you want a system with clean logical steps, the essay will frustrate you; Camus argues by image and assertion as much as by proof. Best paired with The Stranger first, which dramatizes what the essay theorizes.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for The Myth of Sisyphus?
Top-upvoted quotes across the subreddits where this book is mentioned. Click through to read the full thread.
“This video is about The Myth of Sisyphus, a 1942 philosophical essay by Albert Camus, and it discusses how, through a chapter from the Greek mythology, it teaches us the way to find beauty in everything. Camus claims that when Sisyphus acknowledges the futility of his task and the certainty of his f…
“Can you explain more what you found bad about it? Is it that you think the ideas are bad, or that the words are too poorly formed for you to understand the ideas? Personally I think the Myth of Sisyphus is a fantastic piece that anyone interested in meta ethics should read. To briefly summarize: …
“Camus is grouped together with other philosophers under a wide umbrella called Existentialism. Existentialism is hard to precisely define; many of these philosophers greatly disagreed over many topics. Camus, for example, critiqued Sartre's philosophy heavily, calling his meaning a "false hope". Bu…
“Content warning: philosophical discussion of suicide Schopenhauer (see "on the vanity of existence" in *Studies in Pessimism") argues that life is meaningless and full of suffering, but that our "will to life" dupes us into continuing living and to actually reproduce, bringing more life into existe…
“Sure. Camus states that the first (and only) real philosophical question is whether to live or die. That's where he starts and builds from. In that framework he decides that if physical suicide is the wrong answer there have to be other forms of suicide. Further in the Myth of Sisyphus he discusse…
“Here are two perspectives from my favorite existential authors 1. Jean Paul Sartre says that meaning is created by the individual and their actions. "Existence preceeds essence". This means that first you exist, then meaning in your existence is created after that fact. According to him, the point …
“This is the fundamental tenet of Camus' Absurdism as articulated in his essay - The Myth of Sisyphus. As Commander Data says, it is the struggle itself that is most important, never mind the Goal. Camus imagined Sisyphus happy because he had something to strive towards and never reached it. In the s…
“Camus saved me from deep depression and suicidal thoughts when my life had lost all meaning. Thanks to “The Myth of Sisyphus”.
Convinced? Pick up The Myth of Sisyphus
Readers also mention
Books that share discussion threads with The Myth of Sisyphus — counted from the comments, not curated.
Being and Nothingness
Jean-Paul Sartre
Sartre's 700-page argument that you are nothing until you choose what to be — and that terror is the correct response to that fact.
Fear and Trembling
Søren Kierkegaard
Kierkegaard uses Abraham's knife at Isaac's throat to ask whether any act of faith can be explained to the person standing next to you.
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Friedrich Nietzsche
Nietzsche's prophet descends a mountain with three ideas — the Ubermensch, eternal recurrence, the death of God — and r/askphilosophy explains why to read something else first.
Beyond Good and Evil
Friedrich Nietzsche
Nietzsche dismantles the moral framework Western civilization built on, then refuses to tell you what to replace it with.
On the Genealogy of Morals
Friedrich Nietzsche
Nietzsche traces where 'good' and 'evil' come from — and argues the answer involves priests, resentment, and a deliberate inversion of aristocratic values.
Meditations
Marcus Aurelius
The Roman emperor's private notebook — written to himself in Greek, never meant to be published — became the Stoic canon's most-cited text 1,800 years later.
The Myth of Sisyphus — frequently asked
What does Reddit actually think of The Myth of Sisyphus?+
Broadly positive but not uncritical. R/askphilosophy, which accounts for 157 of 219 total mentions, recommends it consistently for readers working through existentialism or the question of meaning. The main dissent isn't that the book is wrong — it's that the final move to 'Sisyphus is happy' feels asserted rather than proven. Personal testimony about the book's effect on depression appears repeatedly in r/philosophy threads.
Is The Myth of Sisyphus actually philosophy, or just an essay?+
Both, and r/askphilosophy treats it as legitimate philosophy. The ↑198 thread carefully distinguishes Camus from Sartre and Kierkegaard, arguing he belongs under the existentialist umbrella only loosely. The formal question — whether suicide is the rational response to an absurd universe — is taken seriously there as a meta-ethics problem, not just literary provocation.
Should I read The Myth of Sisyphus before or after The Stranger?+
After, according to most r/askphilosophy guidance. The Stranger dramatizes the absurd condition that the essay then theorizes. Reading the novel first gives the concepts something concrete to attach to. Going the other direction leaves some readers finishing the essay without fully tracking what Camus means by 'the absurd man.'
Does The Myth of Sisyphus hold up if you don't already believe in the absurd?+
Depends on how much you trust the opening premise. Camus announces that suicide is the only serious philosophical question and builds from there. R/askphilosophy threads note the logic works if you accept his framing of the human-universe gap; critics in the same threads argue he never fully closes the step from 'the absurd exists' to 'you must embrace it rather than resolve it.'