The Plague is Albert Camus's world-renowned fable of fear & courage The townspeople of Oran are in the grip of a deadly plague which condemns its victims to a swift & horrifying death Fear isolation & claustrophobia follow as they are forced into quarantine Each person responds in their own way to the lethal disease some resign themselves to fate some seek blame & a few like Dr Rieux resist the terror An immediate triumph when it was published in 1947 The Plague is in part an allegory of France's suffering under the Nazi occupation & a story of bravery & determination against the precariousness of human existence'A matchless fable of fear courage & cowardice' Independent' Magnificent' The Times Albert Camus was born in Algeria in 1913 He studied philosophy in Algiers & then worked in Paris as a journalist He was one of the intellectual leaders of the Resistance movement & after the War established his international reputation as a writer His books include The Plague The Just & The Fall & he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957 Camus was killed in a road accident in 1960