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Loading... La peste (Folio Series) (original 1947; edition 1985)by Albert Camus
Work InformationThe Plague by Albert Camus (1947)
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It's one of these books that are extremely difficult to rate for me, because I personally hated it, but I still think it was a great book, well-worth reading. I'm happy that I read it, but I don't think I'll ever reread it. ( ) Read this book when I was maybe 15 or so in translation, along with the stranger This time, read it again in French right on the heels of L’Etranger A fine work with lots of insight into the human condition during times of ever present mortal danger, of course so *relevant* at a time like this, one of global pandemic and widespread death, although the mortality of the plague in question is much higher than current figures for COVID-19 I’m assuming that this book, centered on the stoic Dr Rieux is sort of l’inverse of L’Etranger. Whereas Mersault lives a life devoid of intention, alienated from even his own desires, Rieux chooses a life of activism. Camus is careful to differentiate this activism from one based on religion or ideology - it seems we are to understand Rieux as someone (like Mersault) carried along on a certain kind of current. What makes the good doctor different from the hapless narrator of L’Etranger is that his boat has a rudder. Regardless of the fact that I’d much rather hang out with Bernard Rieux than Meursault, I think L’Etranger is the better book. What makes the story of Meursault so disturbing is that some variation of his story happens to so many people all over the world everyday- in fact, if you don’t take action to steer your life, it’s likely to happen. Despite Rieux saying to Tarrou in an eminently quotable line that he doesn’t strive to be a saint but rather a man, this book sometimes verges on a kind of existential hagiography. I guess we are supposed to see the doctor as a kind of exemplar for the rational man striving against absurdity and death, and he certainly plays this role well. But I think this is where the book shows it’s age. Camus was writing on the heels of Allied victory in WW2 and French liberation from fascist domination. The afterglow definitely seeps into La Peste, and it’s a far more optimistic book than L’Etranger. I can’t help but feel like this book’s vision of human nature has soured a bit in the intervening 70 years, not to mention that for a book based upon valorizing humanism, it barely touches on the colonial situation in French Algeria, and reduces every female character to a kind of cardboard cut out. Camus would probably be scandalized by the fact that the experience of Meursault is more relatable than that of Dr. Rieux to a modern reader. But it feels to me that the world is being overwhelmed by multiple plagues, both physiological and ideological, and there are not enough Dr. Rieuxs to turn the tide. "It comes to this," Tarrou said almost casually; "what interests me is learning how to become a saint." "But you don’t believe in God!" "Exactly! Can one be a saint without God?—that’s the problem, in fact the only problem, I’m up against today." The Plague is one of those essential books that I didn't read when I was younger and is part of a literary bucket-list. It's also one of those books that I puzzled over as I read it. I didn't find the book depressing at all - In fact, I found it quite hopeful and bucolic. I took away love, friendship, civic duty and hope. As I read the reviews of others, I realized that other people saw despair, hopelessness and crisis. I'm still confused by it. Camus was an atheist and an absurdist. Since I am also both of these things, I have to believe that I read it correctly. The general idea of The Plague is familiar; the Algerian port of Oran, then a department of France, was suddenly struck by a deadly plague in 194_. The unnamed narrator tells us Oran is an ugly boring town, with nothing really to recommend it except steady employment - "a thoroughly negative place, in short". He then says the banality of the place lends an air of "discomfort" to anyone dying. Think what is must be like for a dying man, trapped behind hundreds of walls all sizzling with heat, while the whole population, sitting in cafés or hanging on the telephone, is discussing shipments , bills of lading, discounts! If it was that awful in normal times, imagine what it would have been like during an epidemic. Disease appeared slowly. Rats stumbled out of their holes and died in the streets. The populace for the most part chose to ignore it. Daily, however, the numbers increased, and then inevitably people started falling ill and dying, with the unmistakeable signs of bubonic plague. Oran was shut down by the distant government. No one could get in or out. Remarkably, the plague did not spread outside its borders. Within them though, what followed is familiar to today's reader: isolation, quarantine, makeshift hospitals for the sick, expanded graveyards, social unrest. Oddly, all the characters are male. Any females were out of town at the beginning of the novel, and unable to return. I wish I had read this book before 2020, and then read it again now. Would it have seemed farfetched before, or would it have read like an allegory? Would it have seemed possible? Reading it now, the reader knows it is all too possible. This has the effect of dulling any political message Camus might have had, and making it seem more like the straightforward diary the narrator presents it as. As the year went by, some citizens came forward, forming groups to hold the community together, while dealing with instructions from a distant France, finally aware of the problem. Many of the citizens died, others lived through it. The narrator's identity is revealed at the end, as is his motivation; "to state quite simply what we learn in time of pestilence: that there are more things to admire in men than to despise." There is a warning here too: "Nonetheless, he knew that the tale he had to tell could not be one of final victory." People will be called upon again and again "...'in the never ending fight against terror and its relentless onslaughts."
Extraordinary....There are things in this book which no reader will ever forget. Of such importance to our times that to dismiss it would be to blaspheme against the human spirit. A perfect achievement. Chaos prevails when the bubonic plague strikes the Algerian coastal city of Oran. A haunting tale of human resilience in the face of unrelieved horror, Camus' novel about a bubonic plague ravaging the people of a North African coastal town is a classic of twentieth-century literature. Belongs to Publisher SeriesDelfinserien (49) Gallimard, Folio (42) Le livre de poche (0132) — 11 more Modern Library (109.2) Nobelpreisträger Coron-Verlag (weiß) (1957 (Frankreich)) Penguin Modern Classics (1472) Pocket Edhasa (6) rororo (0015) Is contained inContainsInspiredHas as a studyHas as a student's study guideDistinctionsNotable Lists
Chaos prevails when the bubonic plague strikes the Algerian coastal city of Oran. A haunting tale of human resilience in the face of unrelieved horror, Camus' novel about a bubonic plague ravaging the people of a North African coastal town is a classic of twentieth-century literature. No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)843.914Literature French French fiction Modern Period 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. Penguin Australia3 editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia. Editions: 0141185139, 0141045515, 0141049235 |