The Plague (original 1947; edition 2011)

I remember why I didn't take many 20th century literature classes as an undergrad. The plague is about the happenings in the town of Oran (probably in Algeria) when the plague hits. It is a study in characters and the ways that humans adapt to new and stressful circumstances. It was also somewhat meandering, oddly written (though that could have been the translation) - like he was going for a very old time-y feel but not quite successful, and rather boring. TAKE THAT ENGLISH MAJORS OF THE WORLD. ( )

This is really a 4 1/2 out of 5 stars kind of novel and I'm sure someone could make a great case for 5 stars as well. I feel I've read quite a few of these sort of end of times novels and so I'm always reluctant to start another one (mainly because of the ever uplifting subject matter) but I figured you can't go wrong with Camus. The Plague has a really interesting perspective to me because of the time when it was written. First published in 1947, there's a sort of lessened media element of it that is often present in more modern novels about plagues. There's a mention of radio here but it is short lived in comparison to the idea of the human psyche and how it greatly changes when it encounters a possible end of life and all humanity moment.

I won't say what happens in the end for those who haven't read it and don't want their ending spoiled but even more than the ending is the greater essence or thick of the middle section, which speaks to human psychology and coping mechanisms. Camus really examines how people react, change, and how their behavior can fluctuate rather radically from their typical habits. In many of these types of novels, there's also a greater emphasis on how one will survive. Here, there's an idea that drinking alcohol might help and so the Algiers town of Oran is filled with those who desperately imbibe spirits while our somewhat understated hero protagonist, Dr. Rieux works 20 hour shifts trying to stop the epidemic by curing for the sick and using any serum he's given. Yet, still it seems more of an examination of behavior. The one area where it has most in common with other novels with this topic is in terms of the subject of quarantining but there is less details about how people are separated off and more again about the effect this has on loved ones. A well worthy read in terms of the human psyche and also to give a glimpse of the time and of the culture of Algiers at the time (Camus would certainly be better able to predict how these townsfolk would react than I would). Perhaps what I liked best is just the philosophical aspects.


Memorable quotes:

pg. 37 "There have been as many plagues as wars in history; yet plagues and wars take people equally by surprise."

ppg. 71=72 "It was undoubtedly the feeling of exile-that sensation of a void within which never left us, that irrational longing to hark back to the past or else to speed up the march of time, and those keen shafts of memory that stung like fire. Sometimes we toyed with our imagination, composing ourselves to wait for a ring at the bell announcing somebody's return, or for the sound of a familiar footstep on the stairs; but, though we might deliberately stay at home at the hour when a traveler coming by the eveing train would normally have arrived, and though we might contrive to forget for the moment that no trains were running, that game of make-believe, for obvious reasons, could not last. Always a moment came when we had to face the fact that no trains were coming in. And then we realized that the separation was destined to continue, we had no choice but to come to terms with the days ahead."

pg. 73 "Thus, too, they came to know the incorrigible sorrow of all prisoners and exiles, which is to live in company with a memory that serves no purpose. Even the past, of which they thought incessantly, had a savor only of regret."

pg. 171 "The only regulation that seemed to have some effect on the populace was the establishment of a curfew hour. From eleven onwards, plunged in complete darkness. Oran seemed a huge necropolis."

pg. 179 "The truth is that nothing is less sensational than pestilence, and by reason of their very duration great misfortunes are monotonous. In the memories of those who lived through them, the grim days of plague do not stand out like vivid flames, ravenous and inextinguishable, beaconing a troubled sky, but rather like the slow, deliberate process of some monstrous thing crushing out all upon its path."

pg. 181 "...this precisely was the most disheartening thing: that the habit of despair is worse than despair itself. Hitherto those who were parted had been utterly unhappy; there was always a gleam of hope in the night of their distress; but that gleam had now dies out. You could see them at street corners, in cafés or friends' houses, listless, indifferent, and looking so bored that, because of them, the whole town seemed like a railway waiting room"

pg. 252 "I have realized that we all have plague, and I have lost my peace. And today I am still trying to find it; still trying to understand all those others and not to be the mortal enemy of anyone. I only know that one must do what one can to cease being plague-stricken, and that's the only way in which we can hope for some peace or, failing that, a decent death. This, and only this, can bring relief to men and, if not save them, at least do them the least harm and even, sometimes, a little good."




( )

One of those books you can read at multiple levels. On the surface, it's about a town hit by a plague and how the inhabitants deal with this. However, the jacket also describes that it can be read as an allegory for France the Nazis. Not sure I'd have got that without being told up front, but under that interpretation it's pretty damning. Well written, and engrosing (almost missed my station, I had my nose so deep in this) but it isn't a feel good book by any stretch of the imagination. ( )

I'd never read Camus before, and I was a little surprised at how much I enjoyed this. It was a little too abstracted to suit me perfectly, but it's a terrifically compelling story about a small group of people doing the very best they can under the very worst of circumstances. ( )

"Classic." "A perfect achievement." "Masterpiece." Big words with significant meaning. I have a better one. "Eh."

The question I have is whether The Plague should be viewed as a work of literature, or something entirely different: philosophy, perhaps? Had I gone into this book expecting a creative work of philosophy, I may have been able to enjoy it. (A little). Essentially, The Plague is a metaphor for Europe under WWII and asks the big questions of life and crises. I went into it expecting a great work of literature, however. And I can only judge it as such.

The Plague starts off well. Sprinkled throughout are wonderful scenes, putting the plague in its proper context, but they are few and far between. For the most part, it reads too much like a text book. The narrator is detached from the characters, making it difficult to differentiate from one to the next and leaving me unattached to all of them. The scenes are largely descriptive, giving a brief overview of the events without showing them. The dialogue is stilted. One character speaks for pages with no break, explaining things the narrator already knows for the sake of the reader. This book is filled with all the things students of writing are told not to do.

So, I say "eh." The metaphor is well done. There is some potential in some of the scenes. But it's not enough for me to care. And what's more damning in a book about thousands of people dying than a lack of care? ( )

This is one of those "oooh, NOW I get it" books.

After finishing I sneaked a peak at the Wiki page, because I was missing something but I wasn't sure what.

The Plague is an allegory for the German occupation of France during WWII. Now I feel like an idiot for not realizing it on my own.

I should have looked at the Wiki earlier. I still enjoyed the book, but I think I would have gotten a lot more out of it if I'd had the allegory in mind while reading it instead of trying to re-interpret passages after the fact. ( )

Though sometimes marginalized today, Sigmund Freud's pioneering work in the field of psychoanalysis was among the most significant technological advances in the 20th century. Unlike most technologies, psychoanalysis had more than a tangential link to the pursuit of self-knowledge. Indeed, psychoanalysis was billed as the key to the unconscious mind, which governs the bulk of our actions. Freud’s problem was that, just as many today are uncomfortable being contemplated on the molecular level, humanity lacked the emotional distance to view its actions distilled down into drives of the id, ego, and super ego. Socrates opined that self-knowledge was the most important aspect of existence, while the Judeo-Christian heritage, through the allegory of Adam and Eve, among others, held that self-knowledge was a sin that divorced humanity from earthly paradise. Not surprisingly, Freud called religion “patently infantile”, and stated that Man has “become a kind of prosthetic God.” Freud believed that understanding the workings of the subconscious mind would ease the burdens of civilization and amplify its benefits, and this is a form of technology.

The concept is ably demonstrated in “The Plague”. Though humanity had by this point in history the technological ability to alleviate an outbreak of a disease that terrorized the Middle Ages, many of the people victimized lacked the emotional or psychological resources to rise about medieval superstition and neuroses. On the mild end of the spectrum, Rambert initially allies with criminals in an effort to escape quarantine and assuage his neurotic death drive… albeit not his own death, but his fear of his common law wife being old upon his return. On the moderate end is Cottard, who thrives in the darkest days of the outbreak when the rest of the town is as fearful as he has always been, then violently lashes out when the crisis abates. On the severe end is Paneloux, a figure straight out of the French Middle Ages with an antiquated and self-defeating message that is eagerly received by a good deal of the populace. The hero of the tale is Rieux, a balanced and centered individual with a healthy sense of responsibility to society who is not crippled by fear and who, with others like him, ultimately carries his civilization out of the crisis and back into temporary complacency with their commerce and gadgets.

Highly recommended. ( )

Although I found this novel slow and found it difficult to connect in any meaningful way to the characters, I still found myself wanting to pick it up and read at any opportunity.

The narrator, whose identity is not revealed for a long time, is telling of a town in which an outbreak of the plague has occurred. The descriptions of the direct effects of the plague on people is described well, and many times, and even though the greater effects are discussed also, I couldn't get a feel for what it would actually be like to be living this nightmare.

The town is sealed off to people both wanting to come or to go. So instantly there is a case of everyone being in the same boat. People are left separated from their loved-ones, if not spatially, then eventually through death. Good people die, bad people do. Rich and poor, powerful and lowly. Disease, the ultimate leveller.

There is a lot of existentialist discourse. No surprises there. But it came over to me as all rather banal. I expected there to be more practical concerns in a time of terrible illness, food and goods shortages and mass grief. It seemed to me to be a load of men sitting about theorising about life, fate, God and the human condition. So if that is what you are after, then you will love it. 3 stars. ( )

I confess I avoided this work for many years because I feared a thinly disguised treatise on abstract existentialism. And certainly this novel has been worked over on that score for many decades. But whatever it may be for philosophers, Camus' novel is an utter masterwork of literary style and concrete observations on people collectively and individually.

Read the rest of this review at my blog: http://thegrimreader.blogspot.com/2013/02/i-survive-algerian-plague-with-albert.... ( )

La historia del libro se desarrolla en la ciudad de Oran en el año 194. Camus, a lo largo del libro, logra evidenciar cómo es la condición humana en momentos críticos. En este sentido, el autor nos invita a relfexionar y a mirar más allá. La peste que sufre la sociedad oranesa es una alegoría a la Segunda Guerra Mundial.

I remember studying the Black Death at college and how it impacted on England, reducing the population of 6 million to less than 2 million during its relentless onslaught. Modern medicine has largely assuaged such calamities only for the likes of famine, war and poverty to take over as some of the main threats we face today. In Albert Camus’ The Plague we share the lives of the community of Oran, Algeria, whose coastal town is hit by an epidemic and what follows is months of struggle for the people not just in fighting the disease but in looking closely at their own humanity.

The novel begins with dead rats being found throughout the town, even in a hotel, but the locals think nothing of this and simply gather up the corpses and discard them. When the first townspeople begin to fall ill the novel’s protagonist, Dr Bernard Rieux and his colleague, Castel, conclude it must be plague but their fears are initially dismissed given such isolated cases. Not heeding the doctors’ warnings proves costly and soon dozens in the town become ill with symptoms including fever and abscesses on the body that require lancing. Beginning with a small number of deaths, the plague soon leads to Dr Rieux designating space at a hospital for plague victims but when that can’t cope with the demand the town has to turn to quarantining the infected to try and stop the epidemic from spreading. Camus’ book is split into five parts and covers a period of many months from the arrival of the plague to its eventual passing, and a reflection on the consequences of the outbreak.

Though Camus denied being an existentialist, The Plague is often regarded as a product of this strand of philosophical thought which put emphasis on the individual being entirely responsible for bringing meaning to their life in the face of distractions such as boredom and despair. The individual is a focal point of the novel despite the plague taking much of the precedence. Over the months a group of characters each respond to the plague in their own way. Dr Rieux is a hero of sorts but his motivation in helping the unfortunate victims of the plague is him simply doing what any medical professional would do. Cottard, after a failed suicide attempt, takes advantage of the epidemic to sell contraband goods. Joseph Grand joins with Rieux in helping the sick in the town which offers a distraction from his problems as a failed writer. Father Paneloux seizes the opportunity to declare the plague as God’s judgement on the town and his preaching sees an ever growing congregation flock to his church looking for guidance. The other main protagonists are outsiders both trapped in Oran when the plague forces the town gates to be shut and the inhabitants forbidden from leaving. Raymond Rambert is a journalist doing research in the town who longs to escape and be with his wife. Finally, there is the mysterious Jean Tarrou who is eager to join with Rieux and Grand from the outset in helping victims of the plague, his actions all steered toward being something of a saint. Watching each of the characters unfold during the novel is always fascinating and not all of them live to see the end.

Camus’ depiction of a plague infested town is frightening and powerful. After the masses of dead rats there comes a time when families are being quarantined, the town is shut off from the outside world and even access to the ocean for swimming is forbidden, something Camus enjoyed in real life. One of the most striking images for me was of an old man that tears up paper in the streets and hurls it into the air to lure unsuspecting cats to him. Once the felines are in close proximity he spits at them! It’s a strange scenario but all the more poignant when the plague has hit and no cats or dogs are in sight leaving the old man to wait forlornly for them to return, his life seemingly having no purpose without this daily ritual. While many in the town succumb to an air of resignation there is a strong community spirit in other corners in fighting the plague. It’s unclear at times whether anyone will survive such is the ferocity of the plague once it has taken hold of Oran.

The Plague is partly an allegory of the German occupation of France (1940-44), of which Camus was all too familiar being based in the Massif Central in 1942 prior to the Germans occupying Southern France. Camus ended up being trapped there, cut off from his homeland of Algeria, as well as his wife and mother when the Germans finally did advance into the south. There is something of Camus in the character of Raymond Rambert who is also trapped and wanting to get home to his wife. Many strands of The Plague can be linked to France’s occupation by Germany. The plague in the novel is the equivalent of the Nazi threat, one that goes unheeded by the locals just as France were slow to react during the Second World War. Their swift defeat was unexpected just as the townspeople in Oran do not fear a serious threat from isolated outbreaks of the plague save Dr Rieux who tries to warn the town of the dangers they face. The isolation, despair and uncertainty about the future are brilliantly recreated by Camus who must have felt similar feelings living under German occupation in France. The end of Germany’s hold on France must have seemed as surprising as the waning of the plague in Camus’ book. There is something of disbelief in the novel that a force beyond the town’s control should suddenly wilt and gradually retreat. I’m sure it’s no coincidence that in describing the plague in the novel, Camus’ depiction could be argued as being akin to that of an advancing and later retreating army.

Not being brilliant at understanding philosophy I know for certain that I will not have garnered all the meanings from Camus’ The Plague but I think it’s one of those novels that you can read at different levels. On the surface it can be read simply as a story of a plague striking an Algerian town, incidentally one Camus was familiar with and despised, and how the community struggles to survive. Going deeper there is the allegory of France’s occupation by Germany during the Second World War, a depth I felt comfortable in exploring during my reading of the text. Deeper still is the novel’s place as a work of existentialism, a philosophical thought I understand to a degree and can see in The Plague despite Camus’ insistence that it is anything but. However deep you want to delve into the meanings I do think the novel is one that can be read by many and still enjoyed.

The first novel I’ve ever read by Albert Camus, I found myself initially intimidated by The Plague wondering if the work of such an intelligent man would be too complicated for me. The novel is thankfully accessible and can be enjoyed by a wide audience. The depiction of an epidemic, its symptoms, the scars it leaves on a coastal town, and finally the individuals in the community are all well conveyed here. It’s made me even more eager to try Camus’ other works. ( )

This book is poetic, exquisitely dark, depressing and beautiful. The ending paragraph gave me chills--probably the best ending to a novel I've ever read. ( )

Several years ago I made a concerted effort to upgrade the quality of my reading material. I wasn’t exactly a comic book aficionado; however I had failed to read most of the classics during my years of formal education. Since that time, I’ve read more than my fair share of Dickens, Steinbeck and Hemingway. I’ve also dabbled in some of the more recent, highly acclaimed literature, happily in some cases, in others not so much. It was never my intent to go so far as to take on the heavy lifting involved with works by such authors as Sartre, Nietzsche or Camus (I’m certainly no philosopher), however upon picking up a copy of Camus’ The Plague, and reading a few paragraphs, its brevity convinced me to take a shot.

This relatively short work, easily read in two sittings, is concerned with an outbreak of Bubonic Plague in the Algerian port city on Oran at some point in the 1940s. While there is some description of the disease and the impact on the city’s populace, as you would expect, the bulk of the novel concerns a handful of the citizenry (a broad cross section), their experiences and mental state as the outbreak gradually worsens and society begins to break down.

It has been said that the Plague is an allegory for the Nazi occupation of France and that may certainly be true, given the time frame. In any event, while this is not my preferred style of work, I was pleasantly surprised at the accessibility of the prose and had no problem appreciating the author’s message. That said, it is unlikely that I will seek out other such work. At least now I can say that I read Camus. ( )

When the plague stealthily but mercilessly struck Oran, Dr. Rieux and his friends had to fight in the dark a noiseless enemy and could only rely on their courage and resilience. Whether the plague symbolized the Nazi occupation of France or the general suffering of our human condition, Camus focused on the internal character and strength of Rieux and his friends rather than the storm’s force and direction. Tarrou organized the sanitation team and Grand joined even though, as Rieux noted, their surviving it was only one in three. And the journalist Rambert could have left the city and returned to Paris, but was willing to risk not only his happiness with his girlfriend but also his life to struggle alongside Oran’s inhabitants to defeat the plague.

Unlike Meursault in The Stranger, who stood alone and alienated, Dr. Rieux fought the plague alongside his comrades Tarrou, Grand, Rambert and Castel. Though in the end, the plague took Tarrou’s life and those of several acquaintances, camaraderie had strengthened their resolve to fight this unknown and powerful enemy and highlighted the hope that in tumultuous hours and charred wastelands a few good men and women might sacrifice for the common good. And though when the city celebrated its victory, Rieux must mourn the loss of his wife, not through the plague but through a previous illness, newborn aroma seeped through the stench of the plague. As Rieux noted at the novel’s conclusion, the enemy might return; and in the next battle victory might escape beyond the city, but their courage and sacrifice would carry the fight across desert and sea.

An allegory of our existential condition, The Plague sprinkles hope without relying on Pollyanna. ( )

Camus tells the story of a devastating plague that sweeps through a French port town on the Algerian coast of Africa in the 1940‘s. In reality, the town of Oran was hit by the plague several times centuries earlier, which may have inspired Camus’ dreadful tale of massive death and meaningless pain and suffering. Narrated by Doctor Bernard Rieux who describes his personal observations, and accompanied by the journals of his friend Jean Tarrou, "The Plague" reads as a documentary from the day the first dead rat appears in Dr. Rieux’s apartment house stairway until nine months later when a tenth of the population is dead and the town is finally cleared of the epidemic.

Although the plot is interesting, it is not the primary focus of the novel. Albert Camus had a much deeper agenda than simply telling the story of a city besieged by the plague. He embraced a philosophy of Absurdism. Akin to Existentialism, Absurdism is a theory that it is up to each individual to find some kind of meaning in a life that is irrational and meaningless, and those dreadful rats not only served as the host to the fleas that carried the plague, they also illustrated the epitome of absurdity in life.

As random individuals start getting sick and dying, escalating to 100 victims a day and the entire town is quarantined, the townspeople go through a whole range of emotions and actions: disbelief, complacency, fear, anger, panic and rebellion. The first time I read "The Plague" many years ago, I was oblivious of the essence of Absurdism and found the plot dry and some of the characters ludicrous; a seventy-five year old asthmatic man who stays in bed all day shifting dried peas one by one, back and forth, from one pan to another, and another simple delusional man with no writing skills who is determined to write a novel... but after pages and pages of attempts, he just can’t get past the first sentence. Silly me. I had no idea these characters were merely trying to find some shred of meaning in Camus’ “absurd” world. Or was the pea counter just a hopeless nihilist?

Nevertheless, be prepared to confront some exaggerated personalities amongst Camus’ characters. But not all characters are that outrageous. While the priest uses religion to define life’s meaning, the atheist Dr. Rieux finds healing and easing the suffering of others brings purpose to his life. There are several profound conversations between Dr. Rieux, the priest, and Jean Tarrou, and many wonderful quotes by Camus.

If you find this novel stimulating, and you haven’t yet read Jean-Paul Sarte’s "Nausea", (which endorses Existentialism as The Plague endorses Absurdism), I highly recommend it. Check out my review on that book as well.

One final note: "The Plague" is also an allegory. The disease is a metaphor for the Nazi occupation of France during World War II. Many of the characters actions and ensuing events have double meanings and are symbolic of conditions during the war; the initial shock and disbelief, the random death of innocent people, the mass graves as the dead bodies accumulate, the shortages of food, gas and electric, the isolation and the “aimless days and sterile memories” (page 66). As monotonous days turn to weeks and months with no future in sight, knowing that if and when it finally does end, life will never be the same after losing loved ones, watching friends and neighbors meaningless suffering, and witnessing the tragic evil of an unexplainable absurd disaster... always knowing that “a plague” can rear it’s ugly head again some day at another time, in another place.

Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1957, for his outstanding contribution in novels, non-fiction, plays, essays, and short stories. ( )

This was a decent book. I did enjoy reading it, and would tell others that it is certainly worth reading.

That being said, it is sometimes a bit slow moving. There is not enough to elevate its status from a good book to a great book, or even a really good book for that matter. ( )

I love Camus, but this wasn't my favorite of his, though I do find his searching for justice in pain very endearing. Plus, it turns out he was kind of hot. Full review here: http://deadwhiteguyslit.blogspot.com/2010/07/plague-by-albert-camus-review.html ( )

This was such an odd mixture of the completely clinical description of the suffering and exile that the plague causes, and the heartbreaking descriptions of personal suffering. The scenes where Rambert decides to stay, rather than escape to his love, and where the group maintain a vigil alongside the dying boy, are so touching. ( )

A reading assignment in high school, of a book I despised almost from the start. I might give it another chance, someday.

Although the title suggests a story of saddness and horror(which it is), Camu keeps his focus on the effects of the epidemic on the quartentened town, the individual actors and their gowing or deterioriting relationships. The descriptions of seemingly insiginificant events in each individual life are beautifully written and although the pace of the story of slow, it matches the advance of the disease as it takes over the town. The individuals discover inner strengths,and reveal themselves to one another as they fight or try to flee from the monster. ( )

Half way through it all became too monotonous. ( )

Mixed feelings about this one. The descriptions of the plague and the disruption to the society in Oran are well handled, but I found the characters mostly unsympathetic and/or two dimensional, ironically until near the end when the plague recedes and characters react with human relief, only for a couple of them to succumb in the disease's last ravages. Though this takes place in Oran in north Africa in the 1940s, there is no mention of the war or even of any African inhabitants, and the events indeed almost seem to take place in a time bubble - but perhaps that is, in part, the point. 3.5/5 ( )

Though thought provoking and enjoyable, this book didn't impress me as much as I expected based on its reputation. The Plague is about an Algerian city that experiences a great plague over the course of several months. The story revolves around Dr. Rieux and his colleagues, who organize to treat the victims. In course, their own personal issues are exposed and sometimes transformed. Camus uses their actions and especially their conversations to ask big questions about human nature, fate, and change. Even though the characters are interesting and the pace moves well, it just didn't force me into new philosophical spaces. ( )

—Naturellement, vous savez ce que c'est, Rieux ? —J'attends le résultat des analyses. —Moi, je le sais. Et je n'ai pas besoin d'analyses. J'ai fait une partie de ma carrière en Chine, et j'ai vu quelques cas à Paris, il y a une vingtaine d'années. Seulement, on n'a pas osé leur donner un nom, sur le moment... Et puis, comme disait un confrère : « C'est impossible, tout le monde sait qu'elle a disparu de l'Occident. » Oui, tout le monde le savait, sauf les morts. Allons, Rieux, vous savez aussi bien que moi ce que c'est... —Oui, Castel, dit-il, c'est à peine croyable. Mais il semble bien que ce soit la peste.

The Bubonic Plague makes a comeback in an Algerian town. The town is quarantined, and the characters of a doctor and his patients and helpers share their thoughts. A bit boring to tell you the truth. I was expecting more. ( )