I’ve been wanting to reread Camus’ La Peste for a while, and now seemed like a pretty good time, under the circumstances.
As the title suggests, the novel tells a story about an outbreak of the bubonic plague in the Algerian city of Oran in the 1940s. It spans the entire outbreak, from the initial cases foretold by the sudden death of the city’s rat population to its eventual dissipation, and takes a holistic approach by attempting to capture the spirit of the entire city rather than focusing exclusively on a few characters. That being said, a few figures do feature prominently in the story, particularly the laconic physician Bernard Rieux, who becomes the first to suspect that the disease he is treating is the plague. Other characters include Jean Tarrou, a mysterious figure who arrives in town shortly before the plague and keeps copious notes of his encounters; Raymond Rambert, a journalist from out of town who is caught in the city’s quarantine; Joseph Grand ,a middle-aged clerk who has spent years writing and re-writing the first sentence of a novel; and Cottard, a withdrawn and sullen man who is strangely enlivened by the plague and the demands it places on him.
Though it is eventually revealed to have been written by one of the characters, the text presents itself as an objective statement of fact, musing on motive and experiences of the characters without diving directly into their perspectives. As is typical with Camus, the prose regularly diverges from the immediate narrative to expound on events from a more philosophical approach. I often find this sort of storytelling irritating, or at least dull, but Camus has a gift for it and counts among my favorite authors despite—or maybe even because of—this predilection.
While I have read La Peste before in its English translation, this was my first time reading it in French. Many years passed between the two readings, but I would say the translation was quite faithful, as I found the tone of the book to be much as I remembered. Still, it’s always satisfying to hear an author’s words unfiltered where possible, which is why I’ve enjoyed revisiting some of Camus’ works now that my French is sufficiently advanced to grasp it. Like his other novel,s this one is worth reading in any language.