This book review was written by Eugene Kernes
“One useful way to get to know a city is to find out how people work there, how they love there, and how they die there. In our little city, perhaps because of the climate, all these things are done together, with the same frenetic and absent attitude. In other words, people here get bored and concentrate on developing their habits. Our fellow citizens work hard, but always to make themselves richer. Above all, they are interested in trade and their first concern, in some form or other, is to do business.” – Albert Camus, Chapter I, Page 8
“When you’re at war, you barely have any idea of what a dead man is. And since a dead man carries no wight unless you’ve seen him dead, a hundred million corpses strewn across history are nothing but smoke in the imagination. The doctor remembered the plague of Constantinople, which according to Procopius killed ten thousand victims a day. Ten thousand dead equaled five times the audience of a large movie theater. That’s what they should do. Gather up the people at the exists of five cinemas, take them to a city square, and make them die in piles to see it a little more clearly. At least then they could put faces they knew to that anonymous pile.” – Albert Camus, Chapter I, Page 30-31
“From that moment on, it’s fair to say the plague concerned us all. Until then, despite the surprise and worry these strange events had brought, our fellow citizens had pursued their occupations, in the usual way, as much as they were able. And that would surely continue. But once the gates were closed, they realized, along with the narrator, that they were caught in the same net and would have to cope with it. And so, for example, a feeling as individual as separation from a loved one suddenly became, from the earliest weeks on, the feeling of a whole people, and, along with fear, the primary anguish during this long period of exile.” – Albert Camus, Chapter II, Page 48
Is This An Overview?
Rats started to die in public, in the streets. As more and more rats died, the people went
about their business without thinking much about the strange events. When people started to get sick, the medical
community took some notice, and did want to take a minor initiative to prevent
more people from getting sick. But had
to go through an authority who did not want to disturb the public, did not
think there was a contagion. As more and
more people died, the large quantities of people did not count for much, as
they were anonymous, as people care less for the unwitnessed death.
When the plague was partially recognized, when the plague
could not be readily ignored, it was assumed to be temporary for plague
interfered with business, and therefore had no future among the people. What caused people to concern themselves with
the plague, was when the city gates were closed. The isolation caused people to take
notice. Take notice, but not react to
the plague. As the plague affected the
city, there was a paper shortage. Even
with the paper shortage, a new newspaper appeared to inform people of the
plague, that quickly transitioned to marketing for products that claimed to
prevent the plague. What will happen to
the city?
Caveats?
The writing style has mixed quality. Sometimes providing psychological
observations, other times tedious details.
The mixed quality is a method of providing the diverse perspectives on
the plague.
