Literary The Plague by Albert Camus

[sun surfer]

This is the MR Literary Club selection for July 2015. Whether you've already read it or would like to, feel free to start or join in the conversation at any time! Guests are also always welcome.


Goodreads • Amazon AU • Amazon CA • Amazon UK • Amazon US • Kobo • Audible US


So, what are your thoughts on it?

[Lynx-lynx]

At 26 pages into the Plague my opinion is Wow!!

The clarity of the the writing, the story and imagery,superbly articulated. (And this in translation!)

Camus' storytelling device as stated very early in is:

The present narrator has three kinds of data: first, what he saw himself; secondly, the accounts of other eyewitnesses (thanks to the part he played, he was enabled to learn their personal impressions from all those figuring in this chronicle); and, lastly, documents that subsequently came into his hands. He proposes to draw on these records whenever this seems desirable, and to employ them as he thinks best. He also proposes...

Notes, the version I'm reading is published by Serapis, January 2015. (ISBN:1230000291025)

Now that I'm looking for the translator I realise that I can't find one. Goodreads has a 1948 hard copy book with the same cover (pic below) that I've got, and the translator is Stuart Gilbert.

And, again with the same cover, Knopf published in 1968, but Goodreads doesn't mention a translator.

I wonder if the version that I bought from Kobo, ($3.92 in AU) is legit!

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

...Notes, the version I'm reading is published by Serapis, January 2015. (ISBN:1230000291025)

Now that I'm looking for the translator I realise that I can't find one. Goodreads has a 1948 hard copy book with the same cover (pic below) that I've got, and the translator is Stuart Gilbert.

And, again with the same cover, Knopf published in 1968, but Goodreads doesn't mention a translator.

I wonder if the version that I bought from Kobo, ($3.92 in AU) is legit!

The Knopf/Vintage/Random, etc. copies are all Stuart Gilbert.

Early Penguin were also Stuart Gilbert, current Penguin (for quite some years now) are Robin Buss.

Yours will almost certainly be Gilbert and I suspect it is legit (as I don't think Knopf/Vintage/Random do that title any more???)

EDIT: Just checked my copies:

Gilbert starts - "The unusual events described in this chronicle occurred in 194- at Oran. Everyone agreed that.."

Buss starts - "The peculiar events that are the subject of this history occurred in 194—, in Oran. The general opinion was ..."

So quite easy to tell them apart.

[bfisher]

I'm reading the Stuart Gilbert translation (which I first read as a Penguin around 1968 or so, although Amazon.ca is now selling a paperback from Random House) which I got from Amazon.ca for $CDN 1.84 - it has a rum-looking cover of an oddly-garbed bird. They also sell an illustrated version for $CDN 5.01 - for some reason, that has a bland cover.

If your copy has the following second paragraph, it's probably the Stuart Gilbert translation:
"The town itself, let us admit, is ugly. It has a smug, placid air and you need time to discover what it is that makes it different from so many business centers in other parts of the world. How to conjure up a picture, for instance, of a town without pigeons, without any trees or gardens, where you never hear the beat of wings or the rustle of leaves, a thoroughly negative place, in short?"

On closer examination, I see that my copy does not indicate a publisher, so I'm starting to wonder if it is legit. Camus died in 1960, so I think that meets the 50-year rule for Canada, but Stuart Gilbert died in 1969, so I wonder if that would be PD. Probably time to dig out the old Penguin...

There are several English translations around. I like Stuart Gilbert's, so I will stick with that; there is a more recent translation by Robin Buss.

[Lynx-lynx]

My ebook has this as the first and second paragraphs:

The unusual events described in this chronicle occurred in 194- at Oran. Everyone agreed that, considering their somewhat extraordinary character, they were out of place there. For its ordinariness is what strikes one first about the town of Oran, which is merely a large French port on the Algerian coast, headquarters of the Prefect of a French Department.

The town itself, let us admit, is ugly. It has a smug, placid air and you need time to discover what it is that makes it different from so many business centers in other parts of the world. How to conjure up a picture, for instance, of a town without pigeons, without any trees or gardens, where you never hear the beat of wings or the rustle of leaves, a thoroughly negative place, in short?

So, it appears to be the Gilbert translation.

[PandathePanda]

I'm also reading the Gilbert translation. I'll might start today during lunch, or sunday

[caleb72]

I'm in the middle of Three Body Problem at the moment. After I've finished I'll have to source a copy.

I've obtained the Gilbert translation from my local library. I'll be reading that after finishing House of Spirits.

[sun surfer]

I have the Robin Buss translation, since I liked his so much for Under Fire and The Count of Monte Cristo. His translation seems to not be available in the U.S. as an ebook but you can take a quick internet travel trip for it.

I'm about 50 pages in and enjoying it. I'm reminded slightly of Death in Venice and even more slightly of The Masque of the Red Death (and the film the Seventh Seal that came after all three), but so far with a less heavy atmosphere than any of those, if that's possible in a book about a town dying of plague. It's still early days though.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I have the Gilbert translation on hold at my library. Should be available sometime soon... I am anxious to get started.

[Rizla]

I tried Camus, or was it Sartre, and I couldn't get on with him. But Chandler said he's good, so he must be. Chandler knew his onions.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Still waiting for my library loan.... These last few months have been exhausting at work. I should have much more free time starting in August and looking forward to it!

[Bookpossum]

I have just got mine from the library. I thought I had a copy from way back, but it must have gone out in a shelf-clearing exercise a while ago.

[PandathePanda]

I just can't get into the book. I start to read then, put the book on Manto's bookshelf and get something else to read (or play games)

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by PandathePanda

I just can't get into the book. I start to read then, put the book on Manto's bookshelf and get something else to read (or play games)

Yes, it is hard sledding. I'm about 45% into the book. It reads more like an essay than a novel so far. It's hard to get invested in any of the characters.