The Plague.

CAMUS, Albert.

Item Number: 91237

London: Hamish Hamilton, 1948.

First edition in English of Camus’ work, which tells the story of a plague sweeping the French Algerian city of Oran. Octavo, original cloth. Near fine in a near fine price-clipped dust jacket with a touch of wear. Translated from the French by Stuart Gilbert. Jacket design by Michael Ayrton. A striking example.

"Camus is not only a giant among French moralists—an important and characteristic strain in French literature—but he stands as one of the most profound thinkers of the 20th century as well" (Pribic, Nobel Laureates in Literature, 75). "The Plague is parable and sermon, and should be considered as such. To criticize it by standards which apply to most fiction would be to risk condemning it for moralizing, which is exactly where it is strongest… There are certain things which need to be said now, without care for the future, and these are said in The Plague" (Stephen Spender in Books of the Century, 159).