Albert Camus; Stuart Gilbert [translator] — The Plague

London, Hamish Hamilton, 1948 . First edition. Cloth. The first English language translation of Albert Camus's absurdist existentialist classic, in the striking original Michael Ayrton dust wrapper. First published in the original French the year prior, this is the first edition, first impression of the first English language edition, translated by Stuart Gilbert. In the original unclipped first impression dust wrapper. Camus's novel is set in the French Algerian city of Oran as it combats a plague outbreak and is put under a quarantine. The novel stresses the powerlessness of the individual characters to affect their own destinies. With a library stamp to the verso of the title page, with ink marks to pastedowns. Camus was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957, largely due to this novel. In the publisher's original cloth binding, with unclipped dust wrapper. Externally, handsome, with a touch of fading to back strip head and tail. Small ink mark to front board. Major ink marks to front pastedown, and stamps to rear pastedown. Spotting and handling marks to dust wrapper, with losses to back strip head and tail, and small closed tears to rear wrap head. Small closed tears to fold at front flyleaf. Internally, firmly bound. Library stamp to verso of title page, with pages otherwise clean and bright. Very Good . Ill.: None. Very Good/Very Good.