The Plague (novel)
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The Plague is a 1947 absurdist novel by Albert Camus. The plot centers around the French Algerian city of Oran as it combats a plague outbreak and is put under a city-wide quarantine. The novel presen
Cover of the first edition
View of Oran in 1943
Sidewalk plaque with a quote from The Plague in New York City
Camus in 1945
Existentialism
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Existentialism is a family of philosophical views and inquiry that explore the human individual's struggle to lead an authentic life despite the apparent absurdity or incomprehensibility of existence.
The Plague (novel)
…1921: 185 cases; 1931: 76 cases; and 1944: 95 cases) were very far from the scale of the epidemic described in the novel. The Plague is considered an existentialist classic despite Camus's objection to the label. The novel stresses the powerlessness of the individual characters to affect their own destinies. The…
Sisyphus, the symbol of the absurdity of existence, painting by Franz Stuck (1920)
French philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir
French philosopher, novelist, and playwright Albert Camus
Adolphe Menjou (left) and Kirk Douglas (right) in Paths of Glory (1957)