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Authorial intent is the idea that we can find greater meaning in a book by considering what the author intended when writing it. Consider how Camus’ life would have helped shape The Plague.
Camus is born to working-class French Algerian parents.
His father was drafted into the army and dies in a World War I battle against Germany. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.
His now fatherless family moves in with his maternal grandmother.
He catches tuberculosis and is forced to take a year away from school.
Camus studies philosophy and spends two years as a member of the communist party. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.
He begins work at a newspaper while writing plays, fiction, and philosophy on the side.
Nazis invade France. His health keeps him from joining the army so Camus moves to Lyon. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.
Back in Algeria, he rises to fame with the release of The Stranger and The Myth of Sisyphus. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.
He begins writing The Plague while living by a hotbed of Resistance.
Camus begins work for the underground Resistance newspaper Combat. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.
An early chapter of The Plague is smuggled out of France and published.
The Plague is published, cementing Camus as a celebrity in France and beyond.
The Rebel is published, its critique of communism costing him many friendships.
He receives the Nobel Prize for Literature. He feared the prize signalled a career near its end. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.
Camus dies in a car crash. In the car’s trunk was a draft of his unfinished biography, The First Man.
