The Artist at Work
"The Artist at Work" (Jonas, ou l'artiste au travail) is a short story by the French writer Albert Camus from Exile and the Kingdom (L'Exil et le royaume, 1957). It has been described as "a satirical commentary on Camus’ personal experience among the Paris intellectual elite of the 1940s and 1950s". The story addresses the question of one's relationship to the community, or more fundamentally the whole issue of existence. The epigraph, a verse from the Book of Jonah, and the name of the main character, "Jonas", set up a link to the prophet Jonah's interaction with people of the Bible.