The Plague
Thoughts on Albert Camus’s book.
I often wonder if how impactful art is is defined by how well it lasts. And part of that lasting power depends on how much it applies to multiple situations across time. Spoiler alert – the last line in the book made believe why Camus’s novel was so powerful, then and now:
“He knew what those jubilant crowds did not know but could have learned from books: that the plague bacillus never dies or disappears for good; that it can lie dormant for years and years in furniture and linen chests; that it bides its time in bedrooms, cellars, trunks, and bookshelves; and that perhaps the day would come when, for the bane and the enlightening of men, it would rouse up its rats again and send them forth to die in a happy city.”
