The Plague is Albert Camuss world-renowned fable of fear and courage the townspeople of Oran are in the grip of a deadly plague, which condemns its victims to a swift and horrifying death. Fear, isolation and 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, and 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 Frances suffering under the Nazi occupation, and a story of bravery and determination against the precariousness of human existence. A matchless fable of fear, courage and cowardice Independent Magnificentthe Times Albert Camus was born in Algeria in 1913. He studied philosophy in Algiers and then worked in Paris as a journalist. He was one of the intellectual leaders of the Resistance movement and, after the War, established his international reputation as a writer. His books include the Plague, the Just and the Fall, and he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. Camus was killed in a road accident in 1960.