“The Plague” by Albert Camus in an overdue new translation by Laura Marris, published 2021 by Knopf

The Plague by Albert Camus, translated by Laura Marris

This new American translation shines light where the older British translation cast only shadows.

As a wayward 22-year-old, I drowned my sorrows by puzzling over philosophy. With an entire lifetime still mine to squander, at that age I figured I deserved to come up for some fresh air and to instead read something light and fluffy and cheery, some romance novel maybe, or because I need some help something in the realm of self-help. Attracted to its alluring title, I chose The Plague. No wonder I’m so messed up.

Recent pandemic events inspired by the “novel” coronavirus cried out to me to reread my half-century-old Modern Library edition of The Plague, its black hardbound covers now faded a lusterless gray. By rereading the dog-eared pages of my copy, I hoped also to revisit the torturous thoughts of my lost youth.

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I cherished this novel when I first read it 50 years ago, and upon rereading it two years ago I cherished it yet again. Alas, I did find tedious the subplots of the human melodramas enjoyed or endured by the diverse cast of minor characters, notably all male, found quarantined within the walls of this imaginary coastal city of French Algiers. In contrast, the passages about the unifying and ever-present main character, Mademoiselle (notably feminine noun) La Peste, remain brilliant distillations of the literature of existentialism for which the name “Camus” has become synonymous.

But here comes a big But. Upon my 2nd reading, I found objectionable the outdated 1948 British translation marred by words and expressions whose meanings now are obscure, especially to Americans. I judged the novel as overdue for an updated American edition. This new American translation published in 2021 is precisely that overdue revision. This new translation prompted me to read the novel a 3rd time. Truly a book for our time, this new translation shines light where the older translation only cast shadows.

Nobly translated by Laura Marris, a poet and writer in her own right, Camus’ prescient novel has been accorded its definitive translation. Appropriately, Ms Marris was translating the novel when she was experiencing our covid lockdown herself. Well worth your pursuit, search online for her own literary criticism of The Plague published in 2022 in The Paris Review. She duly draws parallels to Camus’ plague and to our own decade’s so-called plague. Future editions of her translation may well include her updated essay as its Foreword.

( Reviewed by Mark Mathew Braunstein www.MarkBraunstein.Org )