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The Plague

by Albert Camus

A town under quarantine

Critically Recognized
Regular price $23.70 USD
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Awards & Recognition

  • Author recognition

    Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus

    The metadata identifies Albert Camus as a Nobel Prize winner.

  • Critical praise

    Praised by the Los Angeles Review of Books

    The review praises Laura Marris's translation as “the translation we need to have.”

AlbakiReads Editorial

A town under quarantine

Set in the Algerian town of Oran, Albert Camus’s novel centers on a community confronting a deadly plague and the quarantine imposed in response. Its residents face the crisis in different ways: some accept their fate, others look for someone to blame, while Dr. Rieux and a few others resist the terror. The book connects this collective ordeal to France under Nazi occupation, while also taking up the precariousness of human existence. This hardcover edition features Laura Marris’s English translation, the first new U.S. translation of the novel in more than seventy years.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in classic fiction about communities facing crisis and isolation.
  • Those exploring literary treatments of resistance, responsibility, and human vulnerability.
  • Readers seeking an English translation by Laura Marris.

Themes

Quarantine and isolationCollective crisisResistance and responsibilityHuman vulnerabilityOccupation and allegory

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

"We can finally read the work as Camus meant it to be read. Laura Marris's new translation of The Plague is, quite simply, the translation we need to have." --Los Angeles Review of Books

The first new translation of The Plague to be published in the United States in more than seventy years, bringing the Nobel Prize winner's iconic novel to a new generation of readers. - "A redemptive book, one that wills the reader to believe, even in a time of despair." --The Washington Post


The townspeople of Oran are in the grip of a deadly plague, which condemns its victims to a swift and horrifying death. Fear, isolation, and claustrophobia follow as they are forced into quarantine. Each person responds in their own way to the lethal disease: some resign themselves to fate, some seek blame, and a few, like Dr. Rieux, resist the terror.

An immediate triumph when it was published in 1947, The Plague is in part an allegory of France's suffering under the Nazi occupation, as well as a timeless story of bravery and determination against the precariousness of human existence. In this fresh yet careful translation, award-winning translator Laura Marris breathes new life into Albert Camus's ever-resonant tale. Restoring the restrained lyricism of the original French text, and liberating it from the archaisms and assumptions of the previous English translation, Marris grants English readers the closest access we have ever had to the meaning and searing beauty of The Plague.

This updated edition promises to add relevance and urgency to a classic novel of twentieth-century literature.
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Customer reviews

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Malaika Taylor

I highly recommend to for anyone looking for inner clarity

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Thomas DiMassa

Great service and fast service

Great shopping experience! The book arrived quickly, was well packaged, and matched the description perfectly. I would definitely shop with you again

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Olivia

Smooth.