 Recorded Books presents an unabridged recording of The Plague by Albert Camus, translated from the French by Stuart Gilbert, narrated by James Jenner. This book was first published in French in 1947. This translation is copyrighted 1975 by Stuart Gilbert. This recording is copyrighted 2006 by Recorded Books. In Iran, a coastal town in North Africa, The Plague begins as a series of portents unheeded by the people. It gradually becomes an omnipresent reality, obliterating all traces of the past and driving its victims to the almost unearthly extremes of suffering, madness, and compassion. And now, The Plague. Part 1. The unusual events described in this chronicle occurred in 1940 something at Iran. Everyone agreed that considering their somewhat extraordinary character, they were out of place there. For its ordinariness is what strikes one first about the town of Iran. Which is merely a large French port on the Algerian coast, headquarters of the prefect of a French department. The town itself, let's admit, is ugly. It has a smug, placid air, and you need time to discover what it is that makes it different from so many business centers and other parts of the world. How to conjure up a picture, for instance, of a town without pigeons, without any trees or gardens, will you never hear the beat of wings or the rustle of leaves? A thoroughly negative place, in short? The seasons are discriminated only in the sky. All that tells you of spring's coming is the feel of the air, or the baskets of flowers brought in from the suburbs by peddlers. It's a spring cried in the marketplaces. During the summer, the sun bakes the houses bone dry, sprinkles our walls with grayish dust, and you have no option but to survive those days of fire indoors, behind closed shutters. In autumn, on the other hand, we have deluges of mud. Only winter brings really pleasant weather. Perhaps the easiest way of making a town's acquaintance is to ascertain how the people in it work, how they love, and how they die. In our little town, is this one wonders an effect of the climate? All three are done on much the same lines, with the same feverish yet cat... Sample complete. Ready to continue?