The Plague

Alfred A. Knopf, 1948. First American edition, so stated on copyright page with no indications of other printings and $3.00 price on jacket. Books — an infinite vessel to travel into bygone times and places; portals into the past by which we can view the world. The Plague by Albert Camus is one of the rare examples of literature that transcends this idea, by being both a look into the past and looking forward as a prophecy of the future. Coming out of 2020 has been a wild time for everyone; a time in which there are few more poignant books to read, cherish, and study than Camus’ foundational novel of existentialism and death. If you’ve read The Plague before, then this current time in our world might be the perfect time to revisit it. If not, then what are you waiting for? “A pestilence does not have human dimensions, so people tell themselves that it is unreal, that it is a bad dream which will end. But it does not always end and, from one bad dream to the next, it is people who end,