PESTE D'ALBERT CAMUS (LA) [Mass Market Paperback]

Ce livre est un portrait magnifique des troubles et hypocrisies de l'être humain. Une ville sur le bord de la mer mène une vie simple et tranquille, jusqu'à ce qu'un rat ensanglé soit trouvé. Puis un autre rat, et un autre - ensuite, à l'idiotise humaine, la découverte de ces rats morts ou mourants dans leur propre sang devient un jeu et le centre des nouvelles de la ville.

Tel que le titre le propose, la peste encombre certain villageois, et puis un nombre exponentiel le suit. La désensibilisation à la mort, la noirceur de l'humeur, l'abscence de joie et la perte d'espérence deviennent le centre de l'intrigue.

Un livre superbe, Camus représente l'être humain en toute sa faiblesse physique et sociale. J'avoue que le rhythme et la totalité du travail pèse lourdement sur la conscience et le coeur, mais à le terminer, ce livre exemplifie la condition humaine, et les vérités de la vie.

Having submitted this review in spanish and not having it posted, I'll try again in english.......
Camus reached fame with his elaborations about the concept of the absurd (the purposeless search of the meaning of existence in a universe void of any)in three works: The Stranger, a novel; Caligula, a teathrical opus; and The Myth of Sisyphus, a recopilation of philosophical essays.
In his second famous novel, The Plague, we find a different Camus. Perhaps, more concerned about moral values and solidarity between human beings, in the face of massive destruction.
The plot of the novel unfolds in the city of Oran, Algeria. The central image has to do with a rat invasion that causes a plague epidemy, with disastrous consecuences. Here we find metaphorically portraited the invasion by the Nazis in 1943 of non occupied France (Camus said that the Nazis came like rats).
Then we find a description of the evolution of the plague, the reaction of the authorities (at first, self denial), the progressive isolation of the town from outside world, and on the onset the "normalization" of the tragedy (people grow accostumed to live with it, and become zombies). After the evolution and the growth of the problem, the inhabitants become completely isolated from the outside, and become prisoners in the inside, due to the drastic measures taken by the authorities. The plague becomes a collective problem that requires recognition and reaction by all. We have here a clear metaphorical reference to the need of a collective reaction to the Vichy government by all the citizens. The call to participate and react becomes a moral issue. Camus then describes with certain detail the soccer stadium where people are forcibly concentrated by the authorities, and this is an allusion to the Nazi concentration camps. More than the persons, the protagonist of this novel is the city.
In the sense that the values of solidarity and participation against a common disaster or enemy are called for, this novel is much more developed, from an ethical standpoint, than The Stranger.

esta novela, que da la sensacion de claustrofobia y terror provocada por una enfermedad que pone en cuarentena a toda la poblacion, es otro logro de albert camus, un tremendo escritor, autor de ese otro libro llamado el extranjero. la peste, de caracter menos nihilista, nos muestra a los seres humanos aislados por la enfermedad y en busca de una causa comun, pero siempre solos, con su interior muy buena... LUIS MENDEZ