Plague
“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 to a new generation of readers. • "A redemptive book, one that wills the reader to believe, even in a time of despair." —The Washington Post 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.
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11people
2010–2025years
69% recommend31% neutral
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What Hacker News says
- Alice in Wonderland - I read it once a year, just to remind me of how interesting imagination and paying attention in little things can be.
I'm also thinking of going back to The Plague by Albert Camus. It felt really surreal when I read it over the pandemic. Want to see how I would feel now that COVID has become an endemic disease.
- Albert Camus, "The Plague". Basically a series of character studies of how different people respond differently to the same external pressure (being quarantined in a city stricken by bubonic plague on the North African coast in the early 20th century). The lesson was that it's essentially up to you how you respond to difficulties of various sorts; and actions matter more than words.
Curiously relevant to the recent (ongoing?) pandemic as well.
- Quantum Field Theory by Peskin and Schroeder. There are many things in that book I could make into a standalone project that could occupy years at a time.
Some other picks:
The Man in The High Castle by Phil K. Dick. The Plague or The Outsider by Albert Camus. City of Thieves by David Benioff.
- The Plague and The Outsider by Albert Camus. Be prepared to change your opinion of what is important!
- lately I've been reminded that The Plague by Albert Camus had an influence on me. I was unfamiliar with existentialist philosophy before reading that (in translation, for a high school English class).
- I criticised the initial response, largely from ~mid December 2019 - ~21 January 2020, specifically attempts to shut down any and all discussion of the outbreak initially, as well as downplaying reports. See from three weeks ago this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22274827
In terms of the actual epidemiological response, most especially since ~22 January, limiting travel, events, large congregations of people, and shutting down workplaces and schools, has been absolutely appropriate. Those measures have received some criticism, including by Chinese citizens. I don't feel those criticisms are at all warranted.
The information environment is difficult to navigate. I'd argue that China's erred on the side of too much control, as it tends to do, but in general, after 22 January, the process as a whole has worked, judging by results. The challenges are certainly staggering, particularly at China's scale. The avoiding of mass panic and protest is commendable.
The fact that other governments -- Japan, Korea, Iran, and the United States, notably, and all but certainly North Korea, are repeating many of the same mistakes (or multiplying them several-fold, in the case of Iran and PRK) -- shows that this is highly typical.
I'm also quite disappointed by the international response, and that of the United States quite specifically.
One of the first references I posted to HN following news of the Wuhan outbreak was Albert Camus' 1948 novel, The Plague. The story it tells, of society, government, and individuals, in the face of pestilence, is timeless. And contains valuable lessons:
https://antilogicalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/the-pl... (PDF)
HN submission: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22150237
