The Plague
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First published in 1947, The Plague is set in Oran, a French-Algerian port city suddenly placed under quarantine after an outbreak of bubonic plague. As the epidemic spreads, Dr Bernard Rieux, the journalist Raymond Rambert, and the enigmatic Jean Tarrou confront the suffering, isolation and uncertainty that transform the life of the town. Through their different responses to the crisis, Camus traces the fragile bonds between individuals and the moral choices that emerge when ordinary life falls away.
Written in the aftermath of the Second World War, the novel is often read as an allegory of the Nazi occupation and the French Resistance, though its concerns reach far beyond any single historical moment. Camus considers the nature of solidarity, the limits of heroism and the quiet courage of those who refuse to surrender to suffering. One of his most important works, The Plague gives lasting literary form to his belief that, in an indifferent world, human decency remains an essential act of resistance.
From the book
“It may seem a ridiculous idea, but the only way to fight the plague is with decency.”
— Albert Camus, The Plague
On The Plague
“The Plague is Albert Camus’s most successful novel.”
— Tony Judt, The New York Review of Books