From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

The Plague

Albert Camus

Start date: August 1, 2020

Finish date: August 15, 2020

Discussion: Classics Corner

Find A Copy At

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 349 topics — 11,850 comments total

Classics Corner

* The Schedule for July through Dec. 2025
By Lynn · 3 posts · 36 views

last updated Jun 25, 2025 08:25PM

Classics Corner ~ Loon Feather
By Ann · 5 posts · 17 views

last updated Jul 25, 2025 05:32PM

showing 7 of 7 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Dec 19, 2021 Ken rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: finished-in-2021, world-literature

Some people read plague slash pandemic slash biological warfare books during Covid just because. And some people don't read plague slash pandemic slash biological books during Covid just because.

I belong to neither group, really. This one just so happens. And I just so happen to like Camus, though I must say it wasn't exactly ho-ho-ho timing reading it into the week before Christmas. Especially the second Christmas to be rained upon by Covid. In a big way. When there was brief hope the Greek let Some people read plague slash pandemic slash biological warfare books during Covid just because. And some people don't read plague slash pandemic slash biological books during Covid just because.

I belong to neither group, really. This one just so happens. And I just so happen to like Camus, though I must say it wasn't exactly ho-ho-ho timing reading it into the week before Christmas. Especially the second Christmas to be rained upon by Covid. In a big way. When there was brief hope the Greek letters might all go away.

Anyway, Camus' book offers similarities and differences to the front page of our newspapers. His plague is Black Death Redux complete with buboes (you'll remember them from school) and an opening act featuring rats. So that's different. And really, it seems the plague bedevils only a town in Algeria here. So it's close the gates so no one gets out and no one gets in. Read it and weep your Wuhan tears, then. And if you try to get out of Dodge, you get shot. Though I don't think there are more guns than people. That's a plague of another sort.

Still, a lot rings depressingly familiar. The reactions of people, chiefly. Depression, anger, resistance, cooperation, selfishness, empathy. Strangely, no masks or even Medieval bird beaks. How the good doctor/narrator makes so many house calls and survives is beyond me. All in the name of narration, I guess.

Some people manage to profit off of this plague. Prices go haywire, as disease puts the "in" to "inflation." People are separated, at least. Quarantine. And those who manage to flee, even illegally, Decameron-like (there's no telling if there are funny tales or not, though... as I said, it's the doctor's tale here...no Pardoner's in sight).

Camus inserts some philosophical and political flourishes, too. That's why there's a priest in the book. A priest with a sermon that doctors happen to have time to listen to. And a character who gives us a nice harangue against capital punishment, complete with the tidbit that firing squads stand two steps from their victims and fire at the heart, creating a hole for the ages (where the criminal, guilty or not, will spend a long time now).

Existential? I'll say. Men forging their own codes against a disease that will not quit. One that plays no favorites. One that can be random and fickle. One that is personified for full effect.

So edifying, yes. And keeps Camus high in my estimation. But grew a bit tough to finish, maybe because of me. Or the times. Or the un-holiday season. That I can't say. But it passes, and this Covid-19 (20, 21...), too, shall pass. Our only duty is to see it does before we do by doing as men and women do in this book -- fighting it together for the sake of all. ...more

34 likes · Like · see review

Jul 25, 2020 spoko rated it really liked it

Shelves: book-club, fiction, canon-classic, history, philosophy-religion

Reading this in a time of actual plague (or at least epidemic), I’m probably much less likely than I otherwise would have been to search for symbolism and analog in Camus’ narrative. There is a lot here (especially in the first section) that just echoes what I see in the world around me. But in the end, I do think there’s a way that the plague itself takes on a metaphorical role (as does the Coronavirus epidemic, probably).

The central threat to the characters of this book is a stand-in for any g ...more

Like · see review

Oct 15, 2020 Katy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, sociology

The Plague is a philosophical novel in which Camus considers the fundamental question of existence. In the face of the fact that we all must die, how shall we live. It reminded me of The Myth Of Sisyphus because despite the obvious futility Sisyphus keeps pushing the rock up the hill even though he knows that as he approaches the summit it will roll back down. So what is the point?
The characters in the plague face the same question in an intensified situation because of the virulent disease rav ...more

Like · see review