La Peste (Contemporanea / Contemporary) (Spanish Edition) [Paperback]

Albert Camus (Author)

Book Description

Series: Contemporanea / Contemporary | Publication Date: December 2005

La Peste est un roman d’Albert Camus publié en 1947 qui permit en partie à son auteur de remporter le prix Nobel en 1957. Il a pour théâtre Oran durant la période de l’Algérie française. L’histoire se déroule dans les années 1940. Le roman raconte sous forme de chronique la vie quotidienne des habitants de la ville pendant une épidémie de peste qui frappe la ville et la coupe du monde extérieur.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 255 pages
• Publisher: Debolsillo; 2 Tra edition (December 2005)
• Language: Spanish
• ISBN-10: 9875661139
• ISBN-13: 978-9875661134
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,317,698 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE NOVEL "POR EXCELENCIA" FROM CAMUS, November 27, 2002

By 

Luciano Lupini (Caracas Venezuela) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: La Peste (Folio Series, 42) (French Edition) (Mass Market Paperback)

Having submitted this review in spanish and not having it posted, I'll try again in english.......
Camus reached fame with his elaborations about the concept of the absurd (the purposeless search of the meaning of existence in a universe void of any)in three works: The Stranger, a novel; Caligula, a teathrical opus; and The Myth of Sisyphus, a recopilation of philosophical essays.
In his second famous novel, The Plague, we find a different Camus. Perhaps, more concerned about moral values and solidarity between human beings, in the face of massive destruction.
The plot of the novel unfolds in the city of Oran, Algeria. The central image has to do with a rat invasion that causes a plague epidemy, with disastrous consecuences. Here we find metaphorically portraited the invasion by the Nazis in 1943 of non occupied France (Camus said that the Nazis came like rats).
Then we find a description of the evolution of the plague, the reaction of the authorities (at first, self denial), the progressive isolation of the town from outside world, and on the onset the "normalization" of the tragedy (people grow accostumed to live with it, and become zombies). After the evolution and the growth of the problem, the inhabitants become completely isolated from the outside, and become prisoners in the inside, due to the drastic measures taken by the authorities. The plague becomes a collective problem that requires recognition and reaction by all. We have here a clear metaphorical reference to the need of a collective reaction to the Vichy government by all the citizens. The call to participate and react becomes a moral issue. Camus then describes with certain detail the soccer stadium where people are forcibly concentrated by the authorities, and this is an allusion to the Nazi concentration camps. More than the persons, the protagonist of this novel is the city.
In the sense that the values of solidarity and participation against a common disaster or enemy are called for, this novel is much more developed, from an ethical standpoint, than The Stranger.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps one of the most important books ever written., April 12, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: LA Peste (Paperback)

Camus's second novel "La Pest" is probably his richest and most widely accessable. The importance of the novel, however, is that it strives to create "existential ethics." Camus powerfully builds upon the ideas of absurdity that he estiblished in "The Myth of Sysiphus" and also expands upon how and why people must face and oppose suffering in the world.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars La Peste est une premonition de ce fin de siecle, May 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: LA Peste (Paperback)

Only in French, but comments in English are welcome:un des plus puissants livres de tous les temps, du point de vue litteraire inimitable, du point de vue humain la transcription artistique et a la fois humaine des profondeurs sensibles et distantes en meme temps de l'espece humaine.