"We can finally read the work as Camus meant it to be read. Laura
Marris's new translation of The Plague is, quite simply, the
translation we need to have." --Los Angeles Review of Books
The first new translation of The Plague to be published in the United
States in more than seventy years, bringing the Nobel Prize winner's
iconic novel ("A redemptive book, one that wills the reader to believe,
even in a time of despair*." --The Washington Post*) to a new generation
of readers.
The townspeople of Oran are in the grip of a deadly plague, which
condemns its victims to a swift and horrifying death. Fear, isolation,
and claustrophobia follow as they are forced into quarantine. Each
person responds in their own way to the lethal disease: some resign
themselves to fate, some seek blame, and a few, like Dr. Rieux, resist
the terror.
An immediate triumph when it was published in 1947, The Plague is in
part an allegory of France's suffering under the Nazi occupation, as
well as a timeless story of bravery and determination against the
precariousness of human existence. In this fresh yet careful
translation, award-winning translator Laura Marris breathes new life
into Albert Camus's ever-resonant tale. Restoring the restrained
lyricism of the original French text, and liberating it from the
archaisms and assumptions of the previous English translation, Marris
grants English readers the closest access we have ever had to the
meaning and searing beauty of The Plague.
This updated edition promises to add relevance and urgency to a classic
novel of twentieth-century literature.
