It is but one sentence about a horsewoman riding down the avenues of the Bois de Boulogne – the opening line of a novel that the clerk has been laboring over with much pain and trepidation. And then the worst is over. Customers who bought this item also bought. At the same time, he got caught between the ideological fronts of the Algerian War, with opponents attacking his pacifist, non-committed approach as hopelessly naive. In early 1941, he began to immerse himself in the history of plagues to gather material for his next project: The Plague or The Prisoners, as he preferred to name it at first. Albert Camus - The plague. However, fearing an eventual left-wing revolutionary takeover, he carefully kept the Communists at arms’ length and orchestrated the liberation of Paris in August 1944 to take sole credit for it. “What makes my books a success is the same that makes them a lie for me.” A number of reviewers agreed, criticizing it as grey, heavy and dull. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. But Camus warned his readers of complacency: Pathogens like totalitarianism, racism or mindless opportunism won’t disappear for good. Find summaries for every chapter, including a The Plague Chapter Summary Chart to help you understand the book. Finally, the Prefect receives an order to proclaim a state of emergency and close the town. But a few days later Tarrou comes down with the disease. With the right precautions and modern medicine, they should be able to control an outbreak, shouldn’t they? We must rise up in collective action and resist each recurring wave, over and over and over again. And indeed: For the first time since the beginning of the epidemic, the weekly number of deaths is decreasing. "The Plague" is a famous allegorical novel by Albert Camus, who's known for his existential works. Plague victims are dying alone, away from their families, and then buried without church services. It’s been translated into more than 30 languages and remains one of Gallimard’s best-selling books of all times. eNotes plot summaries cover all the significant action of The Plague. The path to attain peace, he says, is that of sympathy. Finally, Rieux visits the old asthma patient again. Paneloux is shaken by the child’s death and he delivers a second sermon, this time declaring that the horrors of plague leave only the choice to believe everything (about Christianity) or deny everything. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!”, “This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. Rambert’s wife joins him in Oran, but Dr. Rieux learns that his wife has died at the sanatorium. The plague itself is thematic. LitCharts Teacher Editions. Cottard’s shady business partners get back to Rambert and tell him that this time they have organized his escape for good. Family members, friends and lovers are separated for an unforeseeable future, and all communication with the outside world, except for telegrams, is forbidden. The locked-in townspeople become dull and passive; cars seem to be going around in circles, the port lies idle, and commerce dwindles. At the start of the COVID-19 crisis in 2020, demand was so high that, “On the whole, men are more good than bad; that, however, isn’t the real point. Some found it cloyingly moralistic, while others, like Roland Barthes, worried that the metaphorical use of plague risked turning the historic horrors of the Nazis into an ahistorical happening. And, more importantly, what to do in such a nightmarish situation? When the city can withstand no more, the plague begins to level off. Learn how the author incorporated them and why. Soon things get much worse, though. Only one person won’t join in the festive mood: Cottard has barricaded himself in his apartment and is shooting at people from his house. Rieux agrees. The mess starts when rats everywhere die. The Plague Summary. Another former patient, the modest and underpaid municipal clerk Joseph Grand, calls him because of his neighbor’s failed suicide attempt: Cottard has rather ambivalently tried to hang himself. Like everybody else, Rambert is awaiting his love with nervous foreboding, fearing that the long plague months have changed him to a point where it would be hard to rejoin his past. In truth, the estimated number lies somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000 – out of a population of then almost 40 million. They have yearned for and attained love, he thinks, at least for the moment. Then, on a morning in February, the gates are officially reopened with great pomp. The Prefect and most of the doctors in town are wary of calling the thing by its name. The hospital ward is filling up, so that the authorities are constrained to requisition a school to open an auxiliary hospital. Rieux agrees with his much older colleague Dr. Castel that it can be nothing other than plague. Yet they have a hard time processing that information. Between his day job as an editor at Gallimard and his underground activities, he struggled to finish the novel. The Plague by Albert Camus - Goodreads The Plague is a novel by Albert Camus that was first published in 1947. His convictions gained him a pariah status within the French Left in the last decade of his life. The Rebel is a book by French writer and philosopher Albert Camus. 78 likes. After France’s crushing defeat by Nazi-Germany in 1940, the nation was in shock: Huge swastika flags were flown at the City Hall and Eiffel Tower in Paris, the ultimate symbol of humiliation. Albert Camus, inspired by historical accounts of plague outbreaks and his experience during the Resistance in Nazi-occupied France, answered that timeless question in The Plague: Get up and do something useful together! Two days later the man is dead. For Dr. Rieux, that’s not a question of heroism, but simply of “doing my job”. Finally, the town’s gates are opened again in the fifth part, lovers are reunited at last, and the unnamed narrator sums up his observations. So when Dr. Bernard Rieux finds a dead rat lying in the middle of his building’s landing, he doesn’t give it another thought. On the fourth day, the beasts come out in packs and city officials give orders to collect and burn them in the incinerator. In 1957, at almost 44, the Algerian-born Camus became the second youngest Nobel Prize winner ever. Last Reviewed on June 19, 2019, by eNotes Editorial. Since he is already dealing with contraband goods and knows the right people, he puts Rambert in touch with some of his partners. The Myth of Sisyphus (Penguin Great Ideas) Albert Camus. He is aided in his attempts by Cottard, a man who committed an unknown crime in the past and has since then lived in constant paranoia. Struggling with distance learning? And although the death rate among burial workers is high, the list of applicants is long – at this point many fear hunger more than plague. We have to defy the meaningless by creating meaning through action and resistance. After this ghastly ordeal, Rieux turns to Father Paneloux in anger: How about this innocent child, did it also deserve to die? The Plague (Vintage International) - Kindle edition by Albert Camus, Stuart Gilbert. Tarrou quit the day he witnessed an execution by firing squad in Hungary. Albert Camus's The Plague Chapter Summary. In the nearby village of Le Chambon, the Protestant pastor couple Magda and André Trocmé were engaged in saving thousands of Jews from the clutches of the Vichy government, and when confronted by the authorities, Trocmé’s answer was: “I do not know what a Jew is. Camus joined the French Resistance as chief editor of the underground newspaper Combat in 1943 and became friends with Jean-Paul Sartre. He wrote large parts of the novel while working for the French Resistance paper. The book was published in 1947 and is considered one of the most important works by Camus. His daughter Catherine Camus, when asked about the book’s newfound popularity, said that its core message was now more pressing than ever: “We are not responsible for the coronavirus, but we can be responsible in the way we respond to it.”. In 1942, his first two works on the Absurd were published to great acclaim: L’Étranger (The Stranger) and Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus), followed by the enormous commercial success La Peste (The Plague) in 1947. Father Paneloux, a Jesuit priest, delivers a sermon declaring that the plague is a divine punishment for Oran’s sins. Created by Harvard students for students everywhere, SparkNotes is a new breed of study guide: smarter, better, faster. Then, plague breaks out and continues to worsen until it reaches its climax in part four. 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,483. Camus was a cautiously optimistic humanist and moralist: He believed that, for all their colossal failings, people are inherently decent – when given a chance. Here are some memorable quotes from the novel. â Albert Camus, The Plague. But after a complete lockdown is imposed and case numbers rise sharply, a medical doctor and his outsider friend decide to fight the disease by organizing volunteers in sanitary squads. Albert Camus was born in Mondovi, Algeria, on November 7, 1913, into a family of French-Algerian Pieds-Noirs. Your highlights will appear here. On the surface, The Plague is a realistic description of how society reacts to a deadly epidemic: Starting with the authorities’ inevitable denial and followed by hastily convened containment measures, panic buying, shameless profiteering and public discontent, the disease also brings out the very best in people, leading to extraordinary acts of human kindness and solidarity. Paperback $9.29 $ 9. Camus is often considered an existentialist, but the philosophy he most identified with and developed was called absurdism. Rather than giving in to a false sense of security, we should always be on watch for another wave. But then the journalist visits the overworked Tarrou and Rieux in the plague ward and tells them that he decided to stay: Leaving his friends alone now would be cowardly, and as a coward he won’t be able to look his lover in the eyes. The Gestapo also captured a great number of activists and “turned” them into informants, often under severe torture. Around the same time the first living rats are seen in town again. The intention is clear: Don’t raise unwarranted alarm. £4.68. Camus himself suggested reading the novel at “several levels,” having woven his philosophic ideas about the human condition and the Absurd between the lines, for example when Rieux explains to Rambert why he can’t help him sneak out of town to reunite with the love of his life: “Oh, I know it’s an absurd situation, but we’re all involved in it, and we’ve got to accept it as it is.”. Soon he rose in the ranks of activists fighting the same cause, until he discovered that they, too, were sanctioning death, claiming that they were only doing this to build a new system devoid of murder. Albert Camus, inspired by historical accounts of plague outbreaks and his experience during the Resistance in Nazi-occupied France, answered that timeless question in The Plague: Get up and do something useful together! Temporarily out of stock. Dr. Rieux reveals himself as the narrator of the chronicle, which he wrote as a testament to the victims of the plague and the struggles of the workers. 26 offers from £4.46. But the doctor suggests he look into this curious rat invasion. The townspeople slowly regain their hope and begin to celebrate. He finished a Master’s degree in Philosophy, joined and left the Communist Party. That night people go out celebrating in the streets. This free study guide is stuffed with the juicy details and important facts you need to know. Cottard is the only citizen to welcome the plague, as it reduces the rest of the public to his level of fear and loneliness, and he builds up a small fortune smuggling. Yet soon enough, the town is invaded by a repulsive mass of dying rats, often spurting blood and giving off agonizing death-cries in their last moments. Having moved to Paris in 1943, he joined the Resistance as chief editor of the influential clandestine newspaper Combat. In October, Rieux tries out Castel’s new anti-plague serum on a little boy who appears to be a hopeless case. Albert Camusâ âThe Plagueâ and our own Great Reset Two police officers are the only ones on Romeâs Spanish Steps on March 10 amid the coronavirus outbreak. Book Guides ... View on SparkNotes Share. But they are more or less ignorant, and it is this that we call vice or virtue.”. Grand writes a letter to his ex-wife and resumes work on his book. Tarrou organizes an anti-plague sanitation league, and many volunteers join to help. The novel tells of a group of men who donât even try to make sense of a meaningless disease, but instead establish hygiene standards, isolate and care for the sick, develop a ⦠Grand goes through many variations of that phrase, explains the pros and cons of a particular word and concludes by saying that, if only he could get that one sentence right, the rest would all fall into place. From now on things improve rapidly. What does it feel like to be suddenly cut off from nature and the world, beleaguered by an invisible bacillus and condemned to endless apathy? Still, some took the stance of “refus absurde” (Jean Cassou) – refusing to accept the inevitable. Everything is ready to go. For both of them, it is a rare and refreshing moment of complete happiness and friendship, a taste of the overwhelming beauty of life and nature. 79 likes. Major Themes in Albert Camus's The Plague. Paperback. But there is something that still has a meaning.” That something, among other things, is to resist injustice, help your community and alleviate human suffering. His works include The Stranger, The Plague, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Fall, and The Rebel. He began to dedicate his life to what he considered – and still considers – state-sanctioned murder. Yet in the end, we just have to trust in God, because the alternative would be worse. Camus’ message of responsibility and solidarity struck a chord with readers and made it his first commercial success. After 1945, both Gaullists and Communists maintained that the majority of French people had been active resisters. The story is narrated to us by an odd, nameless narrator strangely obsessed with objectivity, who tends to focus on a man named Dr. Bernard Rieux. â Albert Camus, quote from The Plague âAnd indeed it could be said that once the faintest stirring of hope became possible, the dominion of plague was ended.â â Albert Camus, quote from The Plague âNo doubt our love was still there, but quite simply it was unusable, heavy to carry, inert inside of us, sterile as crime or condemnation. if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live as if there isn't and to die to find out that there is.â -Albert Camus, The Fall In Albert Camusâ novel The Plague, the author employs three main characters -- the narrator, Tarrou, and Father Paneloux -- to represent extremist views on religion and science in culture. The Plague concerns an outbreak of bubonic plague in the French-Algerian port city of Oran, sometime in the 1940s. They agree on smuggling the journalist past the bribed sentries out of the locked town. At first, most restrictions remain in place. Having spent Christmas 1959 with his wife and children in Provence, he set off for Paris driving a friend’s luxurious Facel Vega HK500. Even Rieux and his friends briefly join the crowds. He often intersperses his sober narration with quotes from a diary written by Tarrou, thus introducing another detached perspective to underline the unbiased nature of the account. Everybody gets ready, Rambert agrees to pay a hefty fee for the service – but somehow the escape plan keeps falling through. At almost 44 he was the second-youngest author ever to receive the award, and the pressure to perform weighed on him. 559. The young son of M. Othon, the strict local magistrate, comes down with the plague and Rieux and his companions – among them Father Paneloux – watch him suffer and die. 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