Rieux's quiet refusal to stop helping people, even when help seems absurd, is the most compelling portrait of secular moral heroism in French fiction. Camus published his allegorical account of bubonic plague in Oran, Algeria, in 1947. It surged back to bestseller lists in 2020 during COVID. The relevance was unsurprising.

The case for it, the case against, and the rest of the canon open with Pro.