What is a rebel? A man who says no, but whose refusal does not imply a renunciation. He is also a man who says yes, from the moment he makes his first gesture of rebellion. A slave who has taken orders all his life suddenly decides that he cannot obey some new command. What does he mean by saying “no”?
— Albert Camus, The Rebel

Although Albert Camus is better known for his essay “The Myth of Sisyphus” and his novel The Stranger, his essay The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt is perhaps his most important and underappreciated work. Part philosophy, part history, Camus’s essay surveys various aspects of rebellion — including “Metaphysical Rebellion”, “Historical Rebellion”, and “Rebellion and Art” — and differentiates rebellion from revolution. Indeed, it was just this analysis that led to Sartre’s repudiation of Camus, despite the fact that Camus’s perspective arguably builds on Sartre’s notion that “man is condemned to be free”.