Indeed, critics have explored at length the parallels between Clamence's fall and Dante's descent through Hell in the Inferno (see Galpin, King). (The bar, Mexico City, did exist in Amsterdam.) The setting thus serves to illustrate, literally and metaphorically, Clamence's fall from the heights of high-class Paris society to the dark, dreary, Dantesque underworld of Amsterdam, where tortured souls wander aimlessly among each other. The 'last circle of hell' is the site of Amsterdam's red-light district and the location of a bar named Mexico City, which Clamence frequents nightly, and where the bulk of his narrative gradually unfolds. When one comes from the outside, as one gradually goes through those circles, life - and hence its crimes - becomes denser, darker. Have you noticed that Amsterdam's concentric canals resemble the circles of hell? The middle-class hell, of course, peopled with bad dreams. In the opening pages Clamence casually remarks, Beside the atmosphere (which could be established almost anywhere else) the city also was chosen by Camus for a more peculiar reason.

Moreover, Amsterdam is generally described in The Fall as a cold, wet place where a thick blanket of fog constantly hangs over the crowded, neon-light-lined streets. The location of Amsterdam, as a city below sea-level, therefore assumes particular significance in relation to the narrator. Then it is paradoxical that Clamence leads his cher ami away from the human symmetries of a picturesque town to sit on a level, seaside expanse. Even in the details of daily life, I need to feel above'. 'I have never felt comfortable,' he explains, 'except in lofty surroundings. Clamence often speaks of his love for high, open places - everything from mountain peaks to the top decks of boats.

The fall guy novel