Cover of The Plague

Classics · Literary

The Plague

Bestseller: about 12 million copies (estimate)

When rats begin dying in the Algerian port city of Oran, an epidemic follows and the town is sealed off. The story follows a doctor and the people around him as they decide how to live while it rages.

First published
1947
Pace
slow
Length
medium
Format
Standalone

Read this if you want a thoughtful, calm novel about duty, solidarity and living with a crisis.

Skip this if you want a thriller about the disease; this is a philosophical novel with little suspense.

The feel

Content warnings

  • Pandemic
  • Death
  • Child death
  • Grief

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