The Plague

1

As a novelist, Camus may not be considered one of the most prolific writers. As a philosopher, however, Camus’s remarkable series of novels serve as amplifiers for his thoughts. Since the early 19th century, they have influenced generation after generation of young people who find themselves lost and confused in life. His first published novel, The Stranger, brought him fame throughout Europe, and to this day, it remains one of the most popular novels on American university campuses. The Plague is another important representative work by Camus, which, together with The Stranger and The Myth of Sisyphus, forms the theoretical framework of his philosophy of the “absurd”—essentially, life is “absurd.”

The literary genre of The Plague has been clearly defined by the author within the novel itself: a chronicle. The rational and somewhat subdued writing style throughout separates The Plague from the aesthetic heights of typical novels—much like during the COVID-19 pandemic, when everyone was waiting to read the daily epidemic updates. Readers are not looking down upon these poor people ravaged by the plague from above, but rather searching together with all the protagonists fighting the plague for moments of peace in this “absurd” life.

Let us return to the words spoken by Dr. Rieux, the protagonist, to his ailing wife before the plague outbreak, as he sent her away for treatment, using them as a guiding marker to re-examine this novel:

When you come home, everything will be better. We’ll start over.

2

The novel takes place in Oran, a port city in French Algeria. From Google Maps, one can see that this city is located at the southernmost tip of the Mediterranean, built with its back to the bay, and unless one specifically goes looking for it, no one can catch a glimpse of the sea. At the same time, the typical Mediterranean climate destines this city to have scorching summers and clear winters. Rain appears only in specific seasons, and its merciless downpour means mud everywhere.

If one wants to understand a city, the most effective way is to explore how the people there work, how they love, and how they die. Camus wrote this footnote for these city residents who are busy with work, both passionate and absent-minded about life:

For lack of time and lack of thought, people are forced to love without knowing they are in love.

This inevitably makes readers worry about the tragic circumstances they continue to face—these people seem to live dissolute lives with scattered thoughts. Men love women, love movies, love seawater bathing, and love all the activities that mortals can enjoy; women either satisfy each other with lovers in romance or settle into long-term married life, with almost no middle ground between these two extremes.

In an ordinary spring lacking any special characteristics, many dead rats suddenly appeared on the streets. These rats stumbled out from the corners of the city, often swaying a few times before spitting blood and dying. Perhaps this ordinarily absurd city wanted to cleanse itself of the bodily fluids that weighed it down, bringing the sores and pus that had been tormenting it from within to the surface.

As the story develops and the plague bacillus gradually grasps the fate of everyone in this city, the authorities finally realize the seriousness of the situation:

“They were afraid.” The telegram read: “Declare plague state, close city.”

3

The Plague is a historical sketch written in chronicle format. The protagonist, who serves as Camus’s spokesperson, is not the most important character in the novel’s narrative structure. Therefore, this novel depicts a group portrait of characters:

Dr. Rieux is the “whistleblower” who saves the city of Oran, and his fate carries a somewhat tragic color from beginning to end. Rationality and restraint are his synonyms.

Tarrou is a temporary resident of this city. His judge father arbitrarily abused the law to seize the fate of innocent people, and in seeking inner comfort, he came to live in this seaside town. Physically robust, he is the core force of the residents’ volunteer team, and his documentary manuscripts become important material for Dr. Rieux’s writing.

Mr. Grand is a diligent civil servant temp worker. Living in poverty, he is a patient whom Dr. Rieux treats for free. Even during the most serious outbreak of the plague, he continues to work diligently. Though he appears unremarkable, Camus considers him to “truly represent the steadfast virtue that drives epidemic prevention work.”

Rambert was accidentally stranded in Oran on a business trip. When the epidemic began, he considered himself an outsider, believing he had the right to leave this city and reunite with his lover in Paris. Eventually, inspired by Dr. Rieux, Tarrou, and others, he joined the volunteer team.

Cottard had wanted to commit suicide before the plague began but was saved by Grand. During the plague epidemic, he managed to thrive among the citizens. However, when the plague disappeared and everyone was celebrating the city’s reopening, he could not face it all.

In the plague-ravaged city, the shadow of death is as dark as the endless horizon along the city’s coastline. These protagonists, motivated by their own sense of moral responsibility, can actually be seen as the various forms that a “person” can be twisted into when living in a place so close to death.

4

The preceding text has explained the setting, time, and characters of The Plague. From a novelistic perspective, examining the plot of this novel, the entire text proceeds without dramatic waves, advancing the story as coldly as the plague harvests lives. The plague begins at the end of the first winter and ends at the beginning of the second winter. During this period, there are horrifying scenes of human hell, as well as touching humanitarian rescue efforts, and some vibrantly hot lives fighting to the death with plague bacilli for their beliefs.

However, The Plague does not intend to greatly glorify these plague “heroes” who transcend the moral level of most people in this city. In fact, what Camus most admires are those who calmly stick to their posts during the plague to maintain normal city life. The meaning of heroes for everyone living in the epidemic should be given a fully objective evaluation. Appropriate heroism is important, but healing the hearts of people ravaged by the epidemic requires everyone to possess reason and never kneel and beg for mercy. The only way to control the epidemic is to firmly control the situation, minimize deaths, reduce infections, minimize separation between relatives, and not let emotional bonds be maintained solely through imagination.

Fighting the plague—this truth is not worth praising; it is simply a matter of course.

This is a very simple truth—the plague is nothing more than an unwelcome visitor to humanity. We may have been afraid, but it can hardly make us despair. When it frantically plunders the lives of our compatriots, we may temporarily abandon many ways of life, but ultimately those beautiful, passionate, and even vulgar and somewhat unbearable aspects of life will once again fill our lives. With each page the novel progresses, the people in it get closer to the end of this suffering; with each day of life that passes, people all over the world get closer to the end of their lives.

Since the plague or pneumonia has extinguished all colors and driven away all joy, questions about the meaning of life arise at this moment. Such questions are among all questions the most difficult to answer, the most necessary to answer, and at the same time the most vague and unclear. Those who seriously want to answer often do not respond to this question directly. Through the plague, Camus gives this answer:

But what is the plague really? It is life, nothing more.

5

To keep the length from becoming too long and to correspond with the number of chapters in the novel, in the final part of this article, I want to discuss my personal evaluation of the novel and recommendations for existing Chinese translations.

The advantages of the novel have been fully expressed above and need no elaboration, while the novel’s shortcomings are also quite obvious. The Plague has profound connotations, but its overly rational and restrained writing style invisibly raises the reading threshold—those who regard reading as entertainment may not be able to gain sufficient pleasure from it, because what Camus wants to tell is a reasonable story without any surprises. Except for necessary life-and-death separations, the novel has almost no climactic descriptions. This weak-plot, anti-climactic novel requires contemplation while reading and careful reading with a rational and peaceful mindset. On a scale of 10, The Plague can score 8 points.

As for translations, I personally highly recommend Mr. Liu Fang’s translation published by Shanghai Translation Publishing House. Compared to Li Yumin’s version, which has the highest readership on WeChat Reading, this translation is more fluent in language and more elegant to read. Here are excerpts from the same sentence in both translations for reference:

Liu Fang: If the greatest pain of that period, the most universal and deepest pain, was separation by mountains and rivers, if redescribing that phase of the plague is a matter of conscience, then this is equally true: at that time, that pain itself was losing its poignantly moving aspect.

Li Yumin: It is precisely this objectivity itself that guides him to say now that the great pain of that period, the most universal and deepest pain, if it was separation of life and death, redrawing that phase of the plague, if it is a matter of conscience, then that this pain itself lost its touching characteristics at that time is equally true.

Liu Fang: In short, it was the endless, suffocating heavy footsteps that gradually filled the entire city, echoing night after night with the most faithful and melancholy tone to that blind persistence, an emotion that finally replaced love in our hearts.

Li Yumin: In short, it was the endless marching that converged into suffocating sounds, gradually filling the entire city, and night after night, giving blind persistence the most faithful and somber voice, so that in our hearts, this persistence replaced love.

It can be seen that Liu Fang is more restrained in his use of language, and the reading experience is more enduring. Of course, translation selection is always a matter of personal subjective preference. The Plague itself deserves to be continuously retranslated, reinterpreted, and repeatedly examined with serious eyes.