ABSTRACT
Camus did very well in grammar school and earned a scholarship to the prestigious Grand Lycee of Algiers, where he developed a profound interest in philosophy and literature under the guidance of his teacher, Jean Grenier, to whom he would later dedicate both a volume of essays, L'Envers et I'endroit (1937; The Wrong Side and the Right Side, 1968), and a philosophical essay, UHomme revolte (1951; The Rebel, 1956). At the age of seventeen, however, he became gravely ill with tuberculosis, from which his lungs never fully recovered. Camus did, however, resume his studies, and in 1936 he defended his master's thesis on the problem of evil in the writings of Plotinus and Saint Augustine. Although his mother was Catholic, Camus was an agnostic. His medical problems prevented him from being offered a teaching position in Algeria.
