The Plague

This is one of Camus' more well known works. It is the story of a town that is overcome by a plague and its residents are forced to remain within its walls until the disease has run its course. Once one contracts the plague, buboes grow, and you die within a day. The time period is the early 1940s. Some members of this French village are unwilling to sit back and prepare to die, and they step in to fight the virus and find a cure. The leader is Dr. Rieux, who is extraordinarily brave. He helps form sanitary squads to help the ill and their families and transport them to hospitals.
This novel symbolizes the role of the Resistance workers in France during the Nazi occupation during World War II. The symbolism is not obvious, but it is there, and powerful.