In the article below from the New York Times, Alan De Botton explores a wonderful piece of work by author and philosopher Albert Camus entitled ‘The Plague’. Whilst this story takes place in a fictional town in the 1930s the parallels to the Coronavirus outbreak are almost prophetic - from placing the town into lockdown to the experience of human suffering.

Camus believed in absurdist philosophy which “refers to the conflict between the human tendency to seek inherent value and meaning in life, and the human inability to find any in a purposeless, meaningless or chaotic and irrational universe.” He explores these themes in this novel and it is well worth a read. You can find more analysis from Alan De Bottom below: