The State of Siege

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The State of Siege (French: L'État de siège) is the fourth play by Albert Camus.

Written in 1948, The State of Siege—the original sense is closer to state of emergency—is a play in three acts presenting the arrival of Plague, personified by a young opportunist, in sleepy Cadiz and the subsequent creation of a totalitarian regime through the manipulation of fear.

The piece was first performed in October 1948, and was initially received poorly by critics and public, who had eagerly awaited the work, but expected a dramatisation of Camus's novel The Plague. While the two share a common background, the treatments are entirely different in tone. Although Camus himself was pleased with the work, critics remained unimpressed.

The State of Siege has remained almost constantly in print in French, and since 1958 in an English translation by Stuart Gilbert—in Caligula and Three Other Plays—with a foreword by Camus.

[edit] External links

• Article on Camus dealing with his plays

v • d • e Works by Albert Camus Novels: The Stranger • The Plague • The Fall • A Happy Death • The First Man Short stories: Exile and the Kingdom (The Adulterous Woman • The Renegade • The Silent Men • The Guest • The Artist at Work • The Growing Stone) Plays: Caligula • The Misunderstanding • The State of Siege • The Just Assassins • The Possessed Essays: The Myth of Sisyphus • The Rebel • Reflections on the Guillotine Non-fiction: Betwixt and Between • Neither Victims Nor Executioners • Notebooks 1935-1942 • Notebooks 1943-1951 • Nuptials