What is the setting of The Stranger by Albert Camus?

The
setting of is Algeria under French colonial rule in the 1940s. Though
Camus is putting forward an existentialist theme that has universal and timeless implications,
the specific setting nevertheless has a bearing upon the message of the novel.

French Algerians such as Camus tended to feel alienated from the place that was, in
fact, their homeland, north Africa. For those with progressive views, there was the haunting
sense of guilt, the fact that their country, France, had taken over someone else's land and that
people such as themselves, of French extraction, didn't belong there. And yet, Algeria
was their home. The situation was similar to that of British colonials
during the same period, as George Orwell described in his famous works such as Burmese
Days and "Shooting an Elephant."

The tension between
those of European extraction in Algeria, who were referred to as les pieds
noirs, and the indigenous North African population is an essential part of the
background of Camus'...