LA Peste

Rating:
Summary: Perhaps one of the most important books ever written.
Review: Camus's second novel "La Pest" is probably his richest and most widely accessable. The importance of the novel, however, is that it strives to create "existential ethics." Camus powerfully builds upon the ideas of absurdity that he estiblished in "The Myth of Sysiphus" and also expands upon how and why people must face and oppose suffering in the world.

Rating:
Summary: magnifica
Review: esta novela, que da la sensacion de claustrofobia y terror provocada por una enfermedad que pone en cuarentena a toda la poblacion, es otro logro de albert camus, un tremendo escritor, autor de ese otro libro llamado el extranjero. la peste, de caracter menos nihilista, nos muestra a los seres humanos aislados por la enfermedad y en busca de una causa comun, pero siempre solos, con su interior muy buena... LUIS MENDEZ

Rating:
Summary: THE NOVEL "POR EXCELENCIA" FROM CAMUS
Review: Having submitted this review in spanish and not having it posted, I'll try again in english.......
Camus reached fame with his elaborations about the concept of the absurd (the purposeless search of the meaning of existence in a universe void of any)in three works: The Stranger, a novel; Caligula, a teathrical opus; and The Myth of Sisyphus, a recopilation of philosophical essays.
In his second famous novel, The Plague, we find a different Camus. Perhaps, more concerned about moral values and solidarity between human beings, in the face of massive destruction.
The plot of the novel unfolds in the city of Oran, Algeria. The central image has to do with a rat invasion that causes a plague epidemy, with disastrous consecuences. Here we find metaphorically portraited the invasion by the Nazis in 1943 of non occupied France (Camus said that the Nazis came like rats).
Then we find a description of the evolution of the plague, the reaction of the authorities (at first, self denial), the progressive isolation of the town from outside world, and on the onset the "normalization" of the tragedy (people grow accostumed to live with it, and become zombies). After the evolution and the growth of the problem, the inhabitants become completely isolated from the outside, and become prisoners in the inside, due to the drastic measures taken by the authorities. The plague becomes a collective problem that requires recognition and reaction by all. We have here a clear metaphorical reference to the need of a collective reaction to the Vichy government by all the citizens. The call to participate and react becomes a moral issue. Camus then describes with certain detail the soccer stadium where people are forcibly concentrated by the authorities, and this is an allusion to the Nazi concentration camps. More than the persons, the protagonist of this novel is the city.
In the sense that the values of solidarity and participation against a common disaster or enemy are called for, this novel is much more developed, from an ethical standpoint, than The Stranger.

Rating:
Summary: La Peste est une premonition de ce fin de siecle
Review: Just kidding! Actually this book was heavy, depressing, and tedious to slog through. All that means is I didn't like it. I could still tell that La Peste is Camus' best attempt at converting the world to existentialism-- it just wasn't my cup of tea. Skillfully written, well thought-out and planned. Rough going throughout, but it will change you if you let it.

Rating:
Summary: Light hearted, entertaining. Page after page of easy fun.
Review: Just kidding! Actually this book was heavy, depressing, and tedious to slog through. All that means is I didn't like it. I could still tell that La Peste is Camus' best attempt at converting the world to existentialism-- it just wasn't my cup of tea. Skillfully written, well thought-out and planned. Rough going throughout, but it will change you if you let it.

Rating:
Summary: La Peste est une premonition de ce fin de siecle
Review: Only in French, but comments in English are welcome:un des plus puissants livres de tous les temps, du point de vue litteraire inimitable, du point de vue humain la transcription artistique et a la fois humaine des profondeurs sensibles et distantes en meme temps de l'espece humaine.