Pestin

Description

Pestin (The Plague) is a novel, first published in 1947.  

Camus is often labelled the dark existentialist but in the Plague he depicts a view of existence, which maintains the belief in the good found in the individual.  

The inspiration is a Cholera plague that killed a large portion of the Algerian port town Oran in 1849, in the wake of the French empire’s occupation of Algiers.

At first only rats die. But eventually the town becomes completely isolated, making its inhabitants mad because of their longing for freedom.

One doctor fights valiantly for the lives of the inhabitants. Many others join him in his efforts and attempt to create a meaningful life in the worst conditions possible or, at least, make a honourable death possible. The Plague explores how a doomed city shapes the people who live in it.