Editing The Plague (novel) (section)

==In the popular press==
The novel has been read as an [[allegory|allegorical]] treatment of the [[French resistance]] to [[Nazism|Nazi]] occupation during World War II.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/nov/17/albertcamus | title=A hero for our times | work=The Guardian | author=Tony Judt | date=2001-11-16 | access-date=2016-07-08}}</ref>

The novel became a bestseller during the worldwide [[COVID-19 pandemic]] of 2020 to the point that its British publisher [[Penguin Classics]] reported struggling to keep up with demand. The prescience of the fictional [[Cordon sanitaire (medicine)|cordon sanitaire]] of Oran with real-life [[COVID-19 lockdowns]] worldwide brought revived popular attention. Sales in Italy tripled and it became a top-ten bestseller during [[COVID-19 lockdown in Italy|its nationwide lockdown]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Italie: à l'ère du coronavirus, La peste de Camus devient un best-seller|url=https://actualitte.com/article/8811/reseaux-sociaux/italie-a-l-ere-du-coronavirus-la-peste-de-camus-devient-un-best-seller|access-date=2021-01-26|website=ActuaLitté.com|language=fr-FR}}</ref> Penguin Classics' editorial director said "it couldn’t be more relevant to the current moment" and Camus's daughter Catherine said that the message of the novel had newfound relevance in that "we are not responsible for [[COVID-19|coronavirus]] but we can be responsible in the way we respond to it".<ref>{{Cite news |date=2020-03-28|title=Albert Camus novel The Plague leads surge of pestilence fiction|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/28/albert-camus-novel-the-plague-la-peste-pestilence-fiction-coronavirus-lockdown|access-date=2021-01-26|work=The Guardian|author=Kim Willsher|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=2020-03-05|title=Publishers report sales boom in novels about fictional epidemics|url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/05/publishers-report-sales-boom-in-novels-about-fictional-epidemics-camus-the-plague-dean-koontz|access-date=2021-01-26|work=The Guardian|author=Allison Flood|language=en}}</ref>