CAMUS, Albert. The Plague. Trans. from the French by Stuart Gilbert. London: Hamish Hamilton. 1948. 8vo. First British edition, first printing. Publisher’s green cloth lettered in red and silver gilt to the spine, in the marvellous dust jacket designed by Michael Ayrton, one of the artist’s most vivid designs in the medium, and aptly so. A very good copy, the cloth clean with some discolouration to the backstrip as is often the case, though pleasingly less than usual. The corners and tips very gently pushed, the binding tight and square. The contents clean and fine throughout without stamps or inscriptions, the top edge just slightly marked. The dust jacket, the correct first issue, unclipped (9s 6d net) and complete, two small closed tears to spine joints with a few tiny adhesive tape repairs to verso, several very small nicks to spine tips, the spine slightly faded, but the jacket overall much better than usual and scarce as such.
Camus’ excellent second published novel, a study of morals set within the confines of a deadly plague which has left the French-Algerian city of Oran in quarantine. Though overtly about life under such constraints, Camus’ unanswerable question—why do we live amid the unreasonable silence of the world?—remains at its heart. The novel gained renewed appeal during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
CAMUS, Albert. The Plague. Trans. from the French by Stuart Gilbert. London: Hamish Hamilton. 1948. 8vo. First British edition, first printing. Publisher’s green cloth lettered in red and silver gilt to the spine, in the marvellous dust jacket designed by Michael Ayrton, one of the artist’s most vivid designs in the medium, and aptly so. A very good copy, the cloth clean with some discolouration to the backstrip as is often the case, though pleasingly less than usual. The corners and tips very gently pushed, the binding tight and square. The contents clean and fine throughout without stamps or inscriptions, the top edge just slightly marked. The dust jacket, the correct first issue, unclipped (9s 6d net) and complete, two small closed tears to spine joints with a few tiny adhesive tape repairs to verso, several very small nicks to spine tips, the spine slightly faded, but the jacket overall much better than usual and scarce as such.
Camus’ excellent second published novel, a study of morals set within the confines of a deadly plague which has left the French-Algerian city of Oran in quarantine. Though overtly about life under such constraints, Camus’ unanswerable question—why do we live amid the unreasonable silence of the world?—remains at its heart. The novel gained renewed appeal during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
