The Plague by Albert Camus
Quote:
"... [in Oran] everyone is bored, and devotes himself to cultivating habits. Our citizens work hard, but solely with the object of getting rich. Their chief interest is in commerce, and their chief aim in life is, as they call it, ‘doing business’.
In The Plague, Camus explores the effects that a highly contagious and deadly disease has on a port city, Oran. Beginning as curious observations of dead rats in the street it escalates into a full epidemic, leading to the authorities completely closing off the city, so no-one can leave.
The point of view is that of one of the citizens of Oran who has direct access to all the events and whose identity will be revealed at the end of the book.
Quote:
"No longer were there individual destinies; only a collective destiny, made of plague and emotions shared by all."
And so begins the almost tragic destiny of all the inhabitants to a life of seclusion, fear and loss. Hope is practically non-existent, since the death toll seems to escalate as the long days go by and the plague dominates everyday life, but that one human emotion will inevitably reappear in at least some of the citizens.
Camus’s description of the situation is so believable that it sometimes makes you feel as if you’re actually there, observing alongside the narrator.
9/10
