From one of the most brilliant and influential thinkers of the twentieth century and a Nobel Prize-winning author: two novels, six short stories, and a pair of essays in a single volume that deploy his lyric eloquence in defense against despair. In both his essays and his fiction, Albert Camus (1913--1960) provides an affirmation of the brave assertion of humanity in the face of a universe devoid of order or meaning. The Plague--written...