The Plague.  Translated from the French by Stuart Gilbert  London: Hamish Hamilton, [1948].

First edition in English

Octavo 285 pp. Blue publisher's cloth, spine faintly sunned, in the original dust-jacket designed by Michael Ayrton. Spine panel lightly sunned, minor chipping at head of spine, some very tiny shallow chips to head of front panel, otherwise a near-fine copy.

First edition in English of one of Camus' best-known novels. The Plague (originally published as La Peste in France in 1947) tells the story of an epidemic that strikes the Algerian city of Oran. The wide variety of characters, ranging from doctors to vacationers to fugitives, show the far-reaching effects the plague has on the populace. Ultimately the novel deals with the ideas of fate, man's lack of control, and the absurdity of human life. The plague itself represents how the world deals with the philosophical notion of Absurdism, a theory which Camus himself helped to define.

Camus (1913-1960) was a major French philosopher and writer. He is known as an existentialist, but he considered himself a nihilist. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957.

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ID: 8214

$ 750