The Plague - Albert Camus

Albert Camus (1913-1960) was born in Algeria, the son of French parents, when Algeria was a French colony. He lost his father when he was young and at some point he was on the verge of dying of a faver when he was young and spent a long spell in hospital. His family was poor. Many critics refer to his upbringing to explain, at least in part, why the themes of the precarity of life and the impotence of man to defy death pervade most of his works. The Plague was written in 1947 in French. I read it in French. It is one of the books which made the strongest impression on my mind. The Algerian city and port of Oran is invaded by a form of ...  Read the complete review

Reading 'The Plague' is probably akin to suffering in literature. Though a classic (but don't expect a highly reverential opinion from me on this), 'The Plague' is a rather difficult read. Not in terms of the story, but in terms of the way it's written, or to be more accurate this translation by Stuart Gilbert. It seems to have been lacklustrely translated from the original French, as the sentences read obscurely, almost as if the grammatical conversion was abandoned. No doubt, upon checking, that a relatively modern translation has seen the light recently, confirms that there are issues with this still currently circulated edition. Apart ...  Read the complete review

I was seventeen years old when I first read Albert Camus' novel about an outbreak of bubonic plague in the Algerian city of Oran, when I read it as part of my A-Level French studies. It had such an effect on me that I now have copies of it in both French and English. Albert Camus was Algerian and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. His other works include 'The Rebel', 'The Fall' and 'The Outsider'. He was tragically killed in a car crash in 1960. 'The Plague' can be read on several levels. It can be seen as a straight narrative story, or as an allegory of the German occupation of France in the 1940's. It ...  Read the complete review