Hardcover. For the moment I know this: there are sick people and they need curing.”, “I know that man is capable of great deeds. Get ready for some out-of-this-world reading and some insane near-realities with the science fiction and fantasy books that are catching the... A gripping tale of human unrelieved horror, of survival and resilience, and of the ways in which humankind confronts death. An extraordinary work of literature, simply extraordinary. My apologies for not being able to recommend a good translation but I at least wanted to warn you against this one translation. As quarantines and sudden isolation from the outside world become a fact of life, our mild-mannered and selfless protagonist, Dr. Bernard Rieux maintains his cool despite exhaustion and the pestilence surrounding his long days. The answer, truly, is that human beings eventually make a habit of everything given the time and space to cope. There are many errors in formatting such that some sentences and interactions do not make sense. Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free. Camus presents the plague as a threat to human existence, but gives humanity three choices. Either option to Camus is a God not worthy of worship. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 1, 2020. If you lived in an ordinary community quite unexpectedly facing an existential stress test, what would you do? Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2018. Quite a lively translation in an odd mixture of English and American, of the commonplace and the obscure. Life is brief... Camus knew this and had the fact proved first hand when he was smooshed in a car accident at the relatively young age of 46. Sadly few parallels for our Covid ridden times, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 26, 2019. A few years ago, back when I was a freshman in University, I read and reviewed The Stranger by Albert Camus. So beware: the actual novel via Kindle is not the same as the sample. I received a sample, which was fine, so I bought the Kindle version. Albert Camus . In short, you have to keep changing pages because there is so little text on each page. This was the time when it happened! by Vintage International. For example, there are huge spaces between each paragraph and sentences that just break off so you have to read sentences vertically. Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2017. Simple, quiet, thoughtful prose. The plots goes around and around a plague that suddenly ravages the city. The mother who lost her only child in a car accident is aware of this. What is life like during an epidemic? We’d love your help. Unable to add item to List. Both works embody a reality. What is life like during an epidemic? Reading philosophical fiction back to back can have an impression on your thinking! Ah, death; it's always there, isn't it? Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 17, 2020. However if I was to read it as I am now, I am inclined to write a different opinion. The plague is a literal epidemic of the modern Bubonic Plague that sweeps through a town in Algeria. For what is war, but another epidemic. Thought provoking and a study of human nature this is a novel that is on par with the Stranger in my opinion. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. Author/Editors: Albert Camus. I called it poiso. The novel presents a snapshot of life in Oran as seen through the author's distinctive absurdist point of view. This book is a gripping tale, that does not let up, and has you gasping throughout. 4+ Stars. Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2020. Camus is often considered an existentialist, but the philosophy he most identified with and developed was called absurdism. First the rats are dying in the streets of the Algerian coastal city Oran, then the plague breaks out. Since Amazon doesn't give me an opportunity to comment on the problems with the Kindle version, I have to do so here. The COVID-19 pandemic is a great time to make this choice, as difficult as that choice may be. I would read again only selected passages, the ones I appreciated, but would avoid to read the book entirely again and therefore I do not recommend it. Humankind is always been haunted by the idea of oblivion, the mere thought of being forgotten, the inkling of being swiped out of the face of earth, from memory, from hearts of those who were held close, strikes us down like an old rotten sapling, that didn’t see the good days of opulence, nor was given the sun enough, so couldn’t grow to become a tree. Horrible translation or perhaps I should say horrible formatting and translation. A great piece of literature, very important for the current pandemic situation that the world is facing, but has relevance for all times in human history, as it was said - plague never really goes away. ‘T here have been as many plagues as wars in history,” Albert Camus writes in The Plague (now an Amazon best-seller! This book has been one of the most influential in my life. The Plague is a novel about a plague epidemic in the large Algerian city of Oran. Second reading. He studied philosophy at the University of Algiers, and became a journalist. In his novel “ The Plague,” published in 1947, Albert Camus did not extend his imagined pestilence to the entire globe, like the coronavirus that is threatening the … There was a problem loading your book clubs. I called it poison. Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2020. Something went wrong. Or do you pre-emptively stick your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye? As with so many e-books, there are many typos, the result, I suppose of inaccurate electronic scanning. Albert Camus - "The Plague" Book review When COVID-19 times started "The Plague" by Albert Camus become once again popular. Everyone is … Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Welcome back. The people of Haiti know this. Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2014. The Plague is yet another book that I liked, despite the inability to fully understand the underlying themes. The Myth of Sisyphus (Vintage International), RB 1980: The Rule of St. Benedict in English, The Consolation of Philosophy (Penguin Classics). This comment is only for the KIndle Version (not for the book itself(, Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2020. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. It is up to each of us to make the right choice in the face of this disease. Please try your request again later. Looking death in its cold, indiscriminating eye, is perhaps the most difficult thing one can do. You can still read that review, I have not ommitted or changed anything. Analysis Of Albert Camus 'BookThe Plague' 1424 Words | 6 Pages. Please try again. And eventually they get used to death, to mourn silently, to treat the new sick and to quarantine the ones they were in contact with as if it were a regular day's work. Most individuals (and groups of individuals) spend their days fighting the fact of death, lying to themselves, using clever ways to avoid its ever-present reality. One novel, Albert Camus’s The Plague is frequently mentioned as an outstanding example of “plague literature,” and I recently read it for the first time to see if it had anything to say to those of us who live in Santa Barbara about how we might survive our own contagion. The Plague is a novel by Albert Camus, published in 1947, that tells the story from the point of view of an unknown narrator of a plague sweeping the French Algerian city of Oran. Someone needs to proof read this translation- it seems like something done by computer and not by a person. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published To see what your friends thought of this book, I started to read Stuart Gilbert's translation and forced my way through 40% of the book when I finally had put it down (I might be a bit of a masochi. I really like this book, and I find it very relevant to the modern world, for the Plague is indeed life. Ups and downs, but boredom won eventually. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading. 7.25 x 5 in. But I give the book only two stars because so much of the description was unnecessary, turning the book tiresome to read. Albert Camus’ The Plague is a laugh RIOT! "Treeless, glamourless, soulless, the town of Oran ends by seeming restful and, after a while, you go complacently to sleep there. It is a terrible fate, doomed upon us all, that could take place at any time, in millions of different ways. My head is buzzing from all the proffered ideas, and the story and writing are excellent too. It cannot be helped. 3/19/20 As my village on the edge of a big city faces a "shelter-in" injunction, as Covid 19 steadily intensifies, I thought of this book. But for those that have candidly looked into the eye of death -- for those that keep its hard reality within their awareness -- there is a wisdom and depth that emanates. His most important works include The Outsider, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Plague and The Fall. Photograph: Loomis Dean/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images A plague is spreading. Camus’s novel offers a glimpse of this in a conversation between Dr. Rieux and Jean Tarrou, who had unfortunately arrived in Oran shortly before the outbreak of the plague. I'm surprised that the publishers don't take more pride in their product. Few writers kept their work as close to the subject of death as did Albert Camus, one of the greatest novelists and essayists of the 20th century, who met his … This book speaks of the things that are, rather than things that were. Yes, I remember I wanted to buy it somewhere at the beginning of 2020 and it went out of circulation, so Folio (Ukrainian publisher who published translation) made a new edition, which I bought in summer and read in December. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. When a mild hysteria grips the population, the newspapers begin clamoring for action. Early 1960's Modern Library Printing. The book does not flow as intended. In April, thousands of rats stagger into the open and die. Of course it wasn’t a deliberate move. The Plague, published in 1947, was Albert Camus’ international breakthrough. I'm reading this a second time, about 60 years after my first. . Major characters in Camus' fiction, therefore, can probably be expected either to disbelieve or to wrestle with the problem of belief. The Jews who witnessed the holocaust are aware of this. This shopping feature will continue to load items when the Enter key is pressed. The Plague -- Translated from the French By Stuart Gilbert by Camus, Albert Missing dust jacket; Readable copy. Because an epidemic normalizes the harshest and most inevitable truth of all: Death. Please try again. It is up to each of us to make the right choice in the face of this disease. His novel The Plague has recently garnered much worldwide attention do to the pandemic of 2020. Moreover in my opinion there are a few inconsistencies: in the attempt of being ultra-real, the author stumbled. The Plague is a transparent allegory of the Nazi occupation of France beginning in spring 1940. Please try again. It is interesting to recall that 19 MILL. . Ah, death; it's always there, isn't it? TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY Stuart Gilbert . 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. and I doubt I could have picked a better one to start with than "The Plague, Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2018. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Top subscription boxes – right to your door, © 1996-2020, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. However, the entire book in Kindle is different from the sample. You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition. Being quite the optimistic and impressionable young lad that I was, the resolute bleakness of the book left a bad taste in my mouth. That boy is long gone, instead here writing is a man resigned to the bitterness he has since learned to appreciate. The unusual events described in this chronicle occurred in 194- at Oran. I was then filled with eagerness and vigor for life stemming from this new found independence afforded by higher education. It is as reasonable to represent one kind of imprisonment by another, as it is to represent anything that really exists by that which exists not. Start by marking “The Plague” as Want to Read: Error rating book. Find all the books, read about the author, and more. The Plague, or La Peste in its original French, is a novel written by philosopher/writer Albert Camus in 1947. Death seems to be a farfetched long-talked idea, an unpleasant episode others went through and never happened to us, an equivocal dot of a thoug. Refresh and try again. The people of Haiti know this. 45 of the Most Anticipated Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novels of 2021. It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness. On the way plague reveals heretofore hidden aspects of society and its people: “It was as if the earth … The story centers on a physician and the people he works with and treats in an Algerian port town that is struck by the plague. I was reminded a bit of Saramago's, The Plague is one of my favourite novels of 2019. The mistakes in the grammar are constant and disrupts the flow of one's reading. A good read. The first-person narrator is unnamed but mostly follows Dr. Bernard Rieux.Rieux notices the sudden appearance of dying rats around town, and soon thousands of rats are coming out into the open to die. When a charge is levied, however, as here, the reader has a right to expect accuracy, and this text doesn't deliver. But would that still hold true if I read the book today? 278 pp. The Nobel prize-winning Albert Camus, who died in 1960, could not have known how grimly current his existentialist novel of epidemic and death would remain. Camus uses a dry tone (somewhat like Cormac McCarthy's) and a nearly emotionless narrator to describe the catastrophe in Oran, Algeria. I tuned into the feeling that exudes a person's futile attempt to escape and I could feel the helplessness of the characters in each breath I inhaled, in the overwhelming elucidation of exile spread across each page. In a world where medical research grants are harder to fund compared to military arms deals, we need to really consider what the real epidemic is. A classic and a monumental work of existentialism, it is perhaps a valid thing to read with Drumpf likely to kill research grants to public foundations for researching cures for diseases. I had held that opinion about the book since I read it nearly forty years ago. Some "scenes" are memorable and may add to the reader: how do people behave and react? If there are obvious flaws on the book or on dustjacket, I note them. I started to read Stuart Gilbert's translation and forced my way through 40% of the book when I finally had put it down (I might be a bit of a masochist?). Humankind is always been haunted by the idea of oblivion, the mere thought of being forgotten, the inkling of being swiped out of the face of earth, from memory, from hearts of those who were held close, strikes us down like an old rotten sapling, that didn’t see the good days of opulence, nor was given the sun enough, so couldn’t grow to become a tree. There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. The authorities finally arrange for the daily collection and cremation of the rats. To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. But if he isn't capable of great emotion, well, he leaves me cold.”. I wanted no part of the apathetic darkness enshrouding Mersault and rejected any shred of wisdom the book presented. For more on the spread of disease, check out Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond (I reviewed it here on GR). I wanted no part of the apathetic darkness enshrouding Mersault and rejected any shred of wisdom the book presented. Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2020. "There have been as many plagues in the world as there have been wars, yet plagues and wars always find people equally unprepared", “I have no idea what's awaiting me, or what will happen when this all ends. But the question is, do you ignore this fact and live in a kind of blissful fluffy world where it seems nothing can go wrong? Which translation do you guys like the most? When asked to list my top five novels, I included The Plague. March 1991 CAMUS, Albert. Most individuals (and groups of individuals) spend their days fighting the fact of death, lying to themselves, using clever ways to avoid its ever-present reality. As a philosopher familiar with Camus’ thought, I’d like to highlight the book’s main philosophical themes. It is a look at humanity at its darkest and most terrifying of times when death, is at your footstep and its presence is everywhere. The Plague. Camus presents the plague as a threat to human existence, but gives humanity three choices. ‘Swann’s Way’ speaks of the reality that is long gone by and one wish to remember and cherish, whereas, ‘The Plague’ makes one more acutely aware of the bleakness of actual reality when imposed through an epidemic such as plague. There's a problem loading this menu right now. Swann’s way had left me completely mesmerized, longing for the bygones. Set in Algeria, in northern Africa, “[Camus] believed that the actual historical incidents we call plagues are merely concentrations of a universal precondition, dramatic instances of a perpetual rule: that all human beings are vulnerable to being randomly exterminated at any time, by a virus, an accident or the actions of our fellow man . Albert Camus (1913 – 1960) was a French author and philosopher who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. Being quite the optimistic and impressionable young lad that I was, the resolute bleakness of the book left a bad taste in my mouth. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. I also loved the fact that the stranded opera company kept performing. First published in 1948 . It is interesting to recall that 19 MILLION people died in the US in 1918-1919 due to Spanish influenza so this is not something that is limited to far away distant Africa but could arrive anywhere. The COVID-19 pandemic is a great time to make this choice, as difficult as that choice may be. It is up to each of us to make the right choice in the face of this disease. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Book/Item: The Plague. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less ‘Swann’s Way’ speaks of the reality that is long gone by and one wish to remember and cherish, whereas, ‘The Plague’ makes one more acutely aware of the bleakness of actual reality when imposed through an epidemic such as plague. I have not read a Camus book since I read the "Stranger" over thirty years ago. 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. He speaks to us in our own times not because he was a magical seer who could intimate what the best epidemiologists could not, but because he correctly sized up human nature.”. Perhaps those who awarded … From the emergence of the rats as the early signal of what is to come and the somewhat inside nature of the initial response, Camus could have been writing about the current Vivid 19 outbreak. For what is apartheid, and the many massacres in the name of ideology anything but just another face of the disease in our hearts. But yeah, I don't recommend his translation. ", I read this book into the night, a stubborn reader determined to torture herself with the despondency that lurks throughout this novel. But as I moved on, I realized that reading of ‘The Plague’ had rendered something quite remarkable in the way I realized and appreciated both works. I read “The Plague” right after reading “Swann’s Way”. . One of the first books of modern literature I read in high school, The Plague (La Peste) is absolutely chilling and incredibly written. Very good in original hunter green cloth boards, with a good illustrated, price-clipped dust jacket that has a small stain on the front, but is otherwise in sharp condition. Free gifts are usually worth roughly what one pays for them. anyone wanting to ruminate on life, morality and religion. The Kindle version of The Plague is so horrible I suspect it was translated by a machine and never proofread by an English-speaking human. Sample of the most Anticipated Sci-Fi and Fantasy novels of 2019 is spreading in. A 1947 novel by Albert Camus ( 1913 – 1960 ) was born and in! And sentences that just the plague albert camus off so you have to keep changing pages because there is so little text each... Computer and not by a person books are free this is a terrible fate, doomed upon all! Version of the apathetic darkness enshrouding Mersault and rejected any shred of wisdom the book since I read and the! 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