![]() ![]() The Plague is relevant today, particularly given the challenges of distancing, alienation, and isolation imposed by not only disease but also by technology and clinical and administrative practices that have unintended consequences of incentivizing separation between patient and healer, thus engendering greater stress and suffering in both. Camus' masterful engagement of the metaphor of isolation and its profound impact on suffering emphasizes the important role of community and spiritual perspectives of patients and providers in coping with serious illness, death, and dying. Set in the North African French colony of Oran, the novel chronicles a recrudescence of the bubonic plague and the various ways in which the townspeople respond to the pestilence. ![]() In addition to Rieux, this essay also focuses on the perspective of Father Paneloux, a Jesuit priest, who provides important religious commentary on the epidemic, before falling victim to it and dying. Albert Camus is one of the 20th century’s most esteemed writers, and La Peste, or The Plague (1947), is considered one of his masterpieces. The Plague tells the story of a bubonic plague epidemic through the lens of doctor-narrator Rieux. ![]() Health care providers have much to learn from Albert Camus' great novel, The Plague. ![]()
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