The Plague
by Albert Camus
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
Those interested in philosophy, sociology, rockin' infectious diseases
You can look at this book in several different ways, many of which involve really big words that make my brain hurt. Straightforwardly, it's a "mostly" engrossing tale of a town isolated from the world and in the grip of pestilence. Metaphorically, sociologically, philosophically, OWWW... see, there it goes. How do you even begin to talk about something like this? "The Plague" is one of those books you can keep in your head for years, realizing new aspects or layers to it wit...more
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by Albert Camus
I have been on the hunt for books that might fit with my new Fall semester course on Apocalyptic Literature, and this one seemed like a natural fit. I'd read a bit of Camus before - The Stranger, of course, and The Fall... though I don't remember anything about that one. Camus, like Sartre, falls under the heading in my mind of philosophers who probably shouldn't have gone into creative writing (see entry on Nausea, and also a sentiment soon to be repeated as I try to read Ayn...more
I have been on the hunt for books that might fit with my new Fall semester course on Apocalyptic Literature, and this one seemed like a natural fit. I'd read a bit of Camus before - The Stranger, of course, and The Fall... though I don't remember anything about that one. Camus, like Sartre, falls under the heading in my mind of philosophers who probably shouldn't have gone into creative writing (see entry on Nausea, and also a sentiment soon to be repeated as I try to read Ayn...more
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Read in December, 2007
This slim novella wouldn't win any prizes for its plot or characterisation. Neither area is weak, but neither justifies the adulation with which this work is generally acclaimed. That's because this book is really a vehicle for conveying some of Camus' less tangible philosophical ideas, and in this regard it proves to be a skilfully executed enterprise.
Camus' style is to present dilemmas, problems and ideas grounded in an imaginary but plausible context. The issues are explored by characters...more
Camus' style is to present dilemmas, problems and ideas grounded in an imaginary but plausible context. The issues are explored by characters...more
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The Plague is parable and sermon, and should be considered as such. It stands or falls by its message. An epidemic serves a telling symbol for the Nazi occupation of France, and, by extension, for human existence as a whole. My notes remind me that during the summer of 2007 it was widely reported to have been on President Bush's reading list - to much hilarity.
A haunting tale of human resilience in the face of unrelieved horror, Camus' novel about a bubonic plague ravaging the people of a No...more
A haunting tale of human resilience in the face of unrelieved horror, Camus' novel about a bubonic plague ravaging the people of a No...more
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Read in January, 2007
The Plague...wow, where do I even start? I started reading this about 7 or 8 years ago I think and absolutely abhorred it. The only thing worse that I had ever read was Kerouac's "On The Road." I mean, good god, what a boring book.
Ok, ok, before I just continuously insult this thing, I might as well explain myself. Now, I was highly recomended the book by a number of people, though I was told that the English just really doesn't do the original French justice - ok, granted, and f...more
Ok, ok, before I just continuously insult this thing, I might as well explain myself. Now, I was highly recomended the book by a number of people, though I was told that the English just really doesn't do the original French justice - ok, granted, and f...more
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Read in January, 1986
THE PLAGUE is my favorite Camus in part because it treats its subject humanely. While I can appreciate this historical influence of THE STRANGER, I find that famous "writing degree zero" style a bit too stylized for my taste---not so much in Camus, perhaps, but by the many imitators who have latched onto it in an effort to exploit the emotional detachment it allows for. Besides becoming a cheap term that gets used all the time without any philosophical specificity whatsoever, 'existent...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
Tina
What an interesting novel. Sarah had to point out to me how it is a metaphor of the Nazi's and the concentration camps. I read it totally at face value. I just wasn't interested in looking for metaphors.
I like the sociological aspects of the story: how the people react to being locked into their town; how other people use the plague to their advantage while their neighbors suffer; how others realize that the only thing to really do is fight the plague and it's effects.
I love the charac...more
I like the sociological aspects of the story: how the people react to being locked into their town; how other people use the plague to their advantage while their neighbors suffer; how others realize that the only thing to really do is fight the plague and it's effects.
I love the charac...more
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Perhaps the most dear and most formative, I read this book after exiling myself to the Middle East immediately following being finally freed from high school. Camus has a great ability for letting us care about ourselves and others in this tragic world.
“As a sort of postscript... he noted that there is always a certain hour of the day and of the night when a man’s courage is at its lowest ebb, and it was that hour only that he feared.” — page 261
“A loveless world is a dead worl...more
“As a sort of postscript... he noted that there is always a certain hour of the day and of the night when a man’s courage is at its lowest ebb, and it was that hour only that he feared.” — page 261
“A loveless world is a dead worl...more
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Read in January, 2007
Au restaurant de l'hôtel, il y a toute une famille bien intéressante. Le père est un grand home maigre, habillé du noir, avec un col dur. Il a le milieu du crâne chauve et deux touffes de cheveuc gris, à droite et à gauche. Des petits yeux ronds et durs, un nez mince, une bouche horizontale, lui donnent l'air d'une chouette bien élevée. Il arrive toujours le premier à la porte du restaurant, s'efface, laisse passer sa femme, menue comme une souris noire, et entre alors avec, sur les ta...more
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Read in November, 2002
recommends it for:
anyone wanting to ruminate on life, morality and religion.
This book has been one of the most influential in my life. Camus uses the premise of a town infected by the plague and quarantined from the rest of the world to explore some of the great philosophical questions. I find his exploration of religion very astute--that God is either not able to prevent evil and is thus not omnipotent or that God is all powerful and thus condones evil. Either option to Camus is a God not worthy of worship.
Many people read The Stranger and think Camus is a pes...more
Many people read The Stranger and think Camus is a pes...more
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This book fits wonderfully into Camus' evolution of the human condition. A battle with the absurd. With "The Stranger" Camus' unique sense of the absurd is developed. The complexities of the world cannot, as he sees it, ever be fully explained by the rational investigations of man. That rift between our sense of reality and true reality forms the absurd abyss that plagues our minds. With "The Plague" Camus offers ways to cope, to perservere.
His characters represent various...more
His characters represent various...more
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Read in June, 2008
The Plague has all the makings of a great existentialist/absurdist novel: irrational and indiscriminate death; loss of and indifference to human emotions, rites, and dignity; and a perfect ensemble of characters—an atheist doctor, a devout priest, a self-centered emotionalist, a secluded yet gregarious convict, and a seemingly sagacious Spaniard. Unfortunately, I felt that it fell far short of what it could have been.
While I felt that The Stranger also began a bit slow, the ending more ...more
While I felt that The Stranger also began a bit slow, the ending more ...more
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In every literary and artistic movement, I believe, there is one work that stands out as 1) a representative of everything that the movement stands for; and 2) a work of art that can be enjoyed on its own merits by people who do not like, or agree with, the movement that it represents. For me, "I Will Survive" fills this role for disco music; "Spirited Away" fills it for Japanese Anime, and THE PLAGUE does it for French existentialism.
THE PLAGUE makes largely the same ar...more
THE PLAGUE makes largely the same ar...more
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Read in July, 2007
This is the first book I've read by Camus. So far I find it very good. I was inspired so much as to google "bubonic plague," and I ended up at wikipedia as a matter of course. One of the interesting facts about the plague is that it can be treated with twice-a-day treatments of doxicycline (100mg doses). At least, I think that's what it said.
I don't recall exactly how much I was taking in Mozambique as a malarial prophylaxis (damn that word is hard to spell - I just realized how...more
I don't recall exactly how much I was taking in Mozambique as a malarial prophylaxis (damn that word is hard to spell - I just realized how...more
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
ANYONE
A great novel, one of the best I have read.
The Plague tells story of a small town in Algeria that is nearly destroyed by an epidemic of bubonic plague. The people of the town are only dimly aware of the plague as it begins, and once it takes hold, most are too apathetic or weak or confused to fight it. The events are viewed through the eyes of a doctor, and we see all humanity, at its best and worst: loving, killing, sharing, stealing, emb...more
The Plague tells story of a small town in Algeria that is nearly destroyed by an epidemic of bubonic plague. The people of the town are only dimly aware of the plague as it begins, and once it takes hold, most are too apathetic or weak or confused to fight it. The events are viewed through the eyes of a doctor, and we see all humanity, at its best and worst: loving, killing, sharing, stealing, emb...more
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Read in February, 2007
Insightful character sketches of citizens in a town called Oran beleaguered by the plague.
"In the early days when they thought this epidemic much like other epidemics, religion held its ground. But once these people realized their instant peril, they gave their thoughts to pleasure. And all their hideous fears that stamp their face in the daytime are transformed in the fiery dusty nightfall into a sort of hectic exaltation, an unkempt freedom fevering their blood". - Tarrou
&...more
"In the early days when they thought this epidemic much like other epidemics, religion held its ground. But once these people realized their instant peril, they gave their thoughts to pleasure. And all their hideous fears that stamp their face in the daytime are transformed in the fiery dusty nightfall into a sort of hectic exaltation, an unkempt freedom fevering their blood". - Tarrou
&...more
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recommends it for:
Philosophical types
Camus is my other favorite author, along with Dostoevsky. I've read The Stranger and The Fall, as well as most of his nonfiction philosophical treatise The Myth of Sisyphus. Camus' absurdist philosophy is one that I identify with, and I think this philosophy is at its most effective in The Plague. The character of Dr. Rieux is one example of the "absurd hero" who, against all odds and perhaps even logic, fights on against a seemingly indefatigable force. The absurd, at its core, is the...more
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recommended to Mara by:
Ms. Rhode's Modern Thought & Lit class (10th grade)
recommends it for: No one at the moment....
recommends it for: No one at the moment....
This book was probably the most depressing book I've ever read in my life...not to mention the heavy creep factor involved. Granted, I read it in high school and wasn't really enjoying the existential unit of our Modern Thought & Lit class. It might have been all that pre-existing teen angst and sense of impending doom and hopelessness though.... Maybe if I reread it, I'd appreciate it more on an intellectual level. But at the time, it just grossed me out and made everything in life seem ...more
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Read in June, 2001
recommends it for:
anyone who takes public transit- just for other people's reactions
I really enjoyed reading this book on a few levels. First, the idea of having to live through such loss on such a local & grand scale can be very relavent today. Second, my copy was secondhand with someone's notes in the margins. The individual had a differnet persepective on the plot & environs in the book than i had. I felt like i was in a book club discussion. I highly recommend sharing this book with friends & everyone writing their own notes side-by-side. Third & Lastly, kin...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in April, 2007
It isn't trivial that Albert Camus studied philosophy. In this book, the Nobel Laureate uses a "plague" to explore how different people react to the hardships and incomprehensible nature of what is thrust upon them. It takes place in the town of Oran, where one day the rats start dying off, and the people quickly follow. The town is sealed off, and the characters have to deal with the isolation and and the bleakness of their circumstance, among other things. This is an excellent book a...more
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