Amazon.com description: Product Description: THE PLAGUE, which won the Prix des Critiques in 1947, is considered by many to be the author's finest book. It has been described as 'a metaphysical novel the machinery of which can be compared to a Sophoclean tragedy. The plague in question afflicted Oran in the 1940'2; and on one plane the book is a straightforward narrative. Into it, however, can be read all Camus's native anxieties, centred on the idea of plague as a symbol.' The symbol is that of the German occupation of France against which Camus fought so heroically during the war.