Book Review 4: The Plague by Albert Camus
Feb. 21st, 2005 02:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
juushikaSomeone left a box of chocolates in the lounge with no name but also no "help yourself" note. Now here's that question: if I will not get caught and have no idea as to the original owner's intentions for said chocolates, am I wrong to steal one?
I am so behind on these.
Title: The Plague
Author: Albert Camus (translated by Stuart Gilbert)
Published: American Library College Editions, New York: 1948
Pages: 276
Total pages: 503
Text number: 4
Read for: Apocalyptic Themes in Literature course
In brief: A literally simple, thematically complex text in which a plague descends upon a quiet, average, mundane city, leaving the inhabitants in disease and exile. Characters are forced to come to terms with the plague in their own ways, exposing Camus's philosophy of "comprehension." It is an apocalyptic text that deals with revelation and the end of the world (as we know it) without the influence of God.
I have read this book twice now and continue to find it an easy read yet quite difficult to fully comprehend. In a deceptively straightforward fashion Camus's takes on almost too much to handle, and so while plot is fairly simple the ideas and characters are not.
It should only take a few hours to read this text. The literal events of the plague will fascinate the morbidly-inclined, the descriptions of suffering are human and raise sympathy, and all events seem fairly realistic. However, it is difficult to take much away without discussing or at least thoroughly considering all aspects of the text. For this reason, it is a good book for course discussion. There is a lot to be taken from it when one goes beyond the basis.
Going beyond the basis, Camus's philosophy is revealed. This is a book without God—both Camus and many of his characters are agnostic or atheist. The plague kills innocents and in doing so raises the problem of evil, causing many people to turn away from God. Without got, they must stop living for the divine, doing good deeds with the hope of heaven in mind. Instead, they slowly create their own philosophy, one of understanding or comprehension. By observing and thinking about the human condition, they one by one come to life-affirming, if uncertain conclusions. We must do what we can, Camus says; there is no God, there are no answers, yet we must do what we feel is write to protect mankind—because mankind, we know, does exist.
This is a book for the post-holocaust public, a book for the twentieth and twenty-first century, just as long as it's readers are dedicated to seek out it's meanings. While far from my favorite piece of literature, it is without a doubt well written, well conceived, and worth reading.
I am about to start reading Macbeth. You cannot possibly comprehend just how excited this makes me. Celtic music in the background, silence throughout the hall, and the best play ever written by man. This is why I took the second semester Shakespeare course. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow...
I am so behind on these.
Title: The Plague
Author: Albert Camus (translated by Stuart Gilbert)
Published: American Library College Editions, New York: 1948
Pages: 276
Total pages: 503
Text number: 4
Read for: Apocalyptic Themes in Literature course
In brief: A literally simple, thematically complex text in which a plague descends upon a quiet, average, mundane city, leaving the inhabitants in disease and exile. Characters are forced to come to terms with the plague in their own ways, exposing Camus's philosophy of "comprehension." It is an apocalyptic text that deals with revelation and the end of the world (as we know it) without the influence of God.
I have read this book twice now and continue to find it an easy read yet quite difficult to fully comprehend. In a deceptively straightforward fashion Camus's takes on almost too much to handle, and so while plot is fairly simple the ideas and characters are not.
It should only take a few hours to read this text. The literal events of the plague will fascinate the morbidly-inclined, the descriptions of suffering are human and raise sympathy, and all events seem fairly realistic. However, it is difficult to take much away without discussing or at least thoroughly considering all aspects of the text. For this reason, it is a good book for course discussion. There is a lot to be taken from it when one goes beyond the basis.
Going beyond the basis, Camus's philosophy is revealed. This is a book without God—both Camus and many of his characters are agnostic or atheist. The plague kills innocents and in doing so raises the problem of evil, causing many people to turn away from God. Without got, they must stop living for the divine, doing good deeds with the hope of heaven in mind. Instead, they slowly create their own philosophy, one of understanding or comprehension. By observing and thinking about the human condition, they one by one come to life-affirming, if uncertain conclusions. We must do what we can, Camus says; there is no God, there are no answers, yet we must do what we feel is write to protect mankind—because mankind, we know, does exist.
This is a book for the post-holocaust public, a book for the twentieth and twenty-first century, just as long as it's readers are dedicated to seek out it's meanings. While far from my favorite piece of literature, it is without a doubt well written, well conceived, and worth reading.
I am about to start reading Macbeth. You cannot possibly comprehend just how excited this makes me. Celtic music in the background, silence throughout the hall, and the best play ever written by man. This is why I took the second semester Shakespeare course. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow...
