Rating: 
Summary: Life in Death
Review: Camus' THE PLAGUE should make it obvious that Camus was a writer first and an existentialist a very distant second. (In fact, when you read his essays and notebooks, he's probably a critic second and an existentialist an even more distant third.) Set in Oran, the efficient pestilence that is wiping out the population forces the characters to examine their pasts and their present lives. And Camus does a fascinating job of making these characters both real and sympathetic. The novel is also full of stunning images: the frothing rats, the old man brushing his cat while Death looms all around, etc. No, there is not much action in this book but the suspense is nonetheless palpable as you wonder who will be next to succumb. Camus has too often been lumped together with Jean Paul Sartre, and I think this is erroneous. Camus had a belief in the human spirit. While there may be a "benign indifference of the sky" (The Stranger) over all of us, he is not indifferent to what happens in our hearts and minds, and this is what gives human life its worth.
Rating:
Summary: A harrowing account of the human condition
Review: Perhaps in more subtle ways than "The Stranger," Camus' "The Plague" offers both a revealing look into the emergence of French existentialism as well as a very personal account of human suffering and compassion. The novel develops very real characters, for whom our sympathy grows as the plague ravages Oran. In creating these characters, Camus establishes the idea that man is subject to his own apathy and the inevitable sufferings which the world we create offers. Definitely a most profound book.
Rating:
Summary: The lost battle for our own minds and spirits
Review: 40 years ago Camus was all the rage. The forgotten student union coffee shop and Greenwich Village Expresso debates of the first half of the 60s weren't all over Communism, unilateral nuclear disarmament (by the US), whether the US had any business in Southeast Asia, what 'we' should do about Cuba' and how enlightened young whites could best help blacks attain the middle-class goals of better living conditions, radios, equal access to public education, housing, restrooms and voting booths. All the various soon-to-be-dead Kennedys were alive, Communism as an ideal was still arguable (though lousily manifested in the USSR and PRC) and Martin Luther King was unknown, both for his 'dream', and for his purloined doctoral dissertation. The value of Christianity was still up for grabs in most of our young minds. An effective Village pickup line was a sneering, "What? You don't believe in Free Love?" In that hallowed atmosphere we discussed Camus, Sartre and Existentialism. We generally missed the point. Nevermind Existentialism. The Plague is a good book. A great book about humans, stress, isolation and the human condition. A French seaport town stricken by plague finds itself isolated and dying for most of a year. The narrators watch the developments and phases of the epidemic within individuals, the government and the stricken. After a recent re-reading of this book I wonder why we never simply appreciated it for what it is, instead of using The Plague as one of the several platforms for debate in the battles with and for our spiritual selves. I wonder why we refused to see the virtue of the book without forcing it to be something less obvious than it is. I recommend this book for anyone. I suspect it can't be read from any level without appreciation.
Rating:
Summary: An Immortal Masterpiece
Review: The suggestion that Camus's classic is as timely as it is timeless is not an expression to be taken glibly. At its core, The Plague is as much a tale of hope as it is about death. Amid its stark and grim descriptions of despair, lies the rediscovery of common purpose, of brotherhood, sacrifice, and above all, life. Yet, there is nothing in this story of redemption to imply a pivot of righteousness or god-willed forgiveness. No, the veritable truth of this account is the reconciliation of those uncontrollable forces that commandeer us, nature, God, death with those whimsical, human impulses that define us, love, desire, fear. In the end it is to guide us towards understanding significance and belief, both of our individual and collective selves, in the worlds that we create and that create us.
The story unfurls by recounting a morning like any other morning in the sleepy and listless town of Oran. Yet, this seemingly unconvential day is marked with the odd profusion of dead rats within the city. The harbinger of doom symbolized by these rodent corpses quickly turns from peculiarity to dread, and Camus's masterful reportorial passages landscape the cloud of panic and fear that literally and figuratively quarantine the town. At once both detailed and grandiose, Camus never loses focuses on his objectivity. His phrases are almost scientific when describing the physical ravages of the disease, and his honest and austere portraits of the psychology manifestations of Oran always retain the precision of the conscientious observer. Yet, even while constructing the setting with an eye of distance, Camus brilliantly juxtaposes them against his vivid character studies, ones that radiate their unflinching and, in many ways, life-sustaining humanity. From the devastating dedication of Dr. Rieux to the monumental heroism of the tongue-tied Grand, each individual materializes the many facets of morality and courage that emerge in the face of dire adversity. It is in these depictions that Camus's passion and pain thrive-tinted with the weight of his existential musings, these archetypes (as each can be reduced to an element of complete ethical composition) are men caught within a God-fearing, but Godless world, where their only respite is alleviation. In perhaps the most powerful soliloquy on compassion, guilt, and justice that I have ever read, Tarrou illuminates the plight of the "plague-stricken," of which we are all a part, and must somehow escape. It is an absolutely heart-wrenching and beautiful passage; the most sublime in a book replete with them.
Much more can be said about the uncompromising splendor of this novel-it is epic, in the most profound of ways, through its encapsulation of the ways in which we struggle and survive. Relevant for all ages, but conspicuously for ours, where empathy and understanding disappear regularly from our conscience, this is a living testament of perseverance. That truth is not beautiful, that pain will always be linked to us, these are our realities-but we cannot lose hope and balance in the face of them.
Rating: 
Summary: Has Character Issues
Review: The story that Albert Camus wrote is wonderful. It shows what happens when a society is under stress of a uncontrolled medical disaster. But besides from the story, I didn't really like it. I'm not sure if it was because it was translated from french, or if it was written this way, but the book was very confusing because the narrator would jump from person to person without warning. One person would be telling the story, then another person would be, and then at the end you found out that only one of the main characters was the narrator. Very confusing! But... If you're like me and you have to read this book for a school research paper, I would reccomend it. As soon as you get over the whole character/narrator thing, it an easy read that goes by fast. There is also plenty of academic information in reference books and online for doing a research paper on the book.
Rating:
Summary: The trauma of a postwar existence
Review: In "The Plague," Camus updates a medieval horror to the twentieth century to introduce a new concept to his main literary theme of man faced with the absurd. Coming hot on the heels of World War II, it could be seen as an allegory of the eternal struggle between two major human forces -- love and hope on one side, death and destruction on the other. The setting is Oran, a medium-sized city on the Mediterranean coast of Algeria, home to many French and Spanish foreigners. With an inspired sense of tension and drama, Camus builds up the plague as a series of morbid omens: A few dead rats turn up in the streets, their numbers soon growing into the thousands; a woman approaches a doctor's passing car, screaming in pain as blood drips from her crotch; people begin to suffer from buboes and ganglia which stiffen their joints and precede their death; a stricken opera singer falls dead upon the stage during a performance as the audience watches in sickened dismay. The city's government and medical establishment quickly move to quarantine the infected populace, and the city gates are locked and guarded by sentries to prevent people from entering or leaving, which results in panic and chaos. How a city handles a plague has been covered in Daniel Defoe's journalistically toned "A Journal of the Plague Year" (1722), but Camus's novel is less about the disease than about the sensibilities of a group of specific characters. The central figure is Dr. Bernard Rieux, an important local physician who helps to organize "sanitary squads" which try to isolate the infirm. The events of the plague are recorded by a diarist named Jean Tarrou, who, as a staunch believer in the right to life for all people, represents the novel's humanist conscience. A moral dilemma is personified by a journalist named Rambert, who has been quarantined in Oran and wants to get back to France to see his wife, illegally if necessary; ultimately he makes the brave decision to stay and aid the sanitary squads, persuaded partly by the knowledge that Rieux's own wife is away in a sanatorium for an unrelated illness. There are also two comical characters in the shapes of Joseph Grand, a municipal clerk who is working on a novel but is so fastidious a stylist that he can't get past the first sentence; and Cottard, a criminal who postpones his suicide when he notices that the authorities are currently much more concerned with suppressing the plague than prosecuting him. Of course, the plague eventually subsides of its own nature, although its turning point in the novel coincides with, and may be related symbolically to, a shocking decision made by one of the main characters. The impression Camus gives is that, after the celebration of the return to normality is over, the people will probably go back to living very much the same way they did before, which suggests that human resilience is stronger than a need for faith.
Rating: 
Summary: A Superb Novel on Two Levels
Review: Although the Plague is not my favorite Camus, that honor belongs to The Stranger and The Rebel, it is nonetheless a great allegory for the grinding nature of life under occupation by a foreign dictatorial regime. Just as Camus experienced first hand the way in which the Nazi occupation of France beat down the spirit of the French people, in The Plague he parallels that with the way in which an isidious disease can beat down the will of a city's people to live life. Perhaps, the way in which he dealt with the disease itself was rather cursory. Relying, on traditional bubonic plague of medieval vintage as the disease which wipes out large chunks of the city's population, but still I think that is rather irrelevant because in a sense The Plague is a story of evil and apathy. Evil and apathy that creeps into the hearts and minds of the residents of a city gripped by disease, or of the citizens of a nation thats been conquered by a fascist army. The novel may move a little slowly, but I urge anyone who starts reading The Plague to finish, and they will eventually gripped by it. Plus, the novel certainly has a lot to teach us in the twenty-first century and should be read if only for that reason.
Rating:
Summary: interesting but also slightly dull...
Review: I enjoyed the Plague, because of its detail towards all that the narrator was addressing in the novel. The point I didn't like about the book, was the beginnings' difference from the rest of the book and its harsh descriptions of everything happening. The beginning is relevant, however, but the way its written and its context is so different from all the other sections. I liked how the author describes the setting so well that you can picture the little French town in northern Africa and its streets, and you can almost feel the weather that the people feel and their emotions throughout their time. When he describes the summer and the flowers for the funerals you almost want to smell the flowers and to feel the sun and the humid air.
I liked the plot of how the people want to get out of their captured town, but they realize that they should be happy with what they have and that they should try to help those who may not survive the plagues onset of pain and death. When the characters struggle with the local authorities to try and escape their dismal situation they are put through even more pain that's not caused by the plague. I liked the way that the main characters dealt with their losses and their gains, but they don't see their gains until the end of the novel. The narrator, in the beginning, is able to make you see and hear the rats in the walls of their town and able to see what happens over the time in the city. When the people die and they run out of places to bury them its sad to think how that could have really happened, and also how it has happened in our own history in the past.
Rating: 
Summary: very dull
Review: I found the book extremely dull and boring. I can on the other hand understand and apprecitate why it's regarded as a classic. Camus'es style of writing conveys emotions very well and is more suited for a people who are very much into philosophy. Camus used the word "abstract" in a way I never thought of using it and found that very interesting. The plague represents an "abstraction" because it is so difficult to comprehend. The plague kills many people and forces everyone in the city into internment camps. The book centers around three characters one of whom is a doctor. The three characters are unusually contemplative and philosophical. This is what dulled the book for me. The characters simply didn't seem like real people and I could not see them as anyone I'd ever meet. Another thing about the story that bothered me was the fact that the events described was a fictional account of events taking place in an Algerian town, yet Arabs are seldom mentioned. There is no mention at all of the Arabic language or Islam. There is no trace of Arabic or Islamic influence anywhere. No one in the book has an Arabic or Islamic name, there are no Muslims anywhere. There are many parts of the book however that mention Christianity and churches. So it's also very culturally biased.
Rating:
Summary: Town Unity
Review: The book in general was an outstanding piece of how society faces horrible things, lives with them takes it all in to the point of breaking down and then rises up to overcome what ever has been thrown at them.
In a town of Oran, some would say they had a bit of a rat problem. At First they came out by ones and twos, but after a couple of days, it was by the fifties and hundreds. People started to get worried, not to mention sick at the sight of hundreds of rats dieing in the streets. At one point,There are truck loads of rats that are picked up in the street. The rats were then taken to a place to be burned. One can only imagine the smell of thousands of burning rats.
People wondered why all these rats were coming out and dieing in their streets. Well, they soon found out, because what was once a dead rat, became an epidemic to people. Whatever the rats had, people also got. The symptoms were pretty much the same. Fever, achy body, and other graphic details.
Dr. Rieux one of the main characters in the story tries to figure out why all this is happening in the town. Many people have different theries but in the end it comes down to one nasty bacteria. After they figure out what it is, they quarintine the town and lock the gates. Dr. Rieux and many other people go through alot of obstacles through the way trying to figure out how to end this epidemic.
In my opinion, this book was exciting in some parts,ecpecially when talking about the plague, rats, and people dieing. It gave great detail to what was happening. The author gives great detail to the characters and surrounding, but still lets your imagination run wild. I liked the fact that it was a book of fiction, but also could very easily happen to anyone of our cities. One thing I did not like about the book was that Camus(the author)jumped from person to person and went on and on about them, giving information about them that had no relavence to the story. Through the whole book there are many surprises that will attract you to keep reading. A big one is in the end, but to tell it would just be foolish. I suggest this novel to people to like goory details and a realistic plot. Enjoy the book, I know I did!
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