This evening, France 2 offers its viewers the opportunity to discover episodes 3 and 4 of its fiction “The Plague”, adapted from the novel by Albert Camus. But what differences exist between the end of the book and the end of this TV version?
Monday March 11, 2024, France 2 continues and ends at 9:10 p.m. the broadcast of its mini-series La Peste, adapted from the literary work of Albert Camus. But did you know that the ending of fiction differs from the conclusion of the famous novel?
Please note, the following lines contain major revelations about the outcome of the story brought to the small screen by the director Antoine Garceau and the authors Gilles Taurand And Georges-Marc Benamou!
The ending of “La Peste” on France 2 is different from the book
Indeed, in the last minutes of this dystopian and original version of The Plague, we discover that Cottard has hanged himself or that the vaccine developed by Castel will be developed in the United States. It is also towards this country that our journalist Sylvain Rambert and his partner Laurence Molinier are heading to work to make the world a better place.
For his part, Tarrou, who shows symptoms of the plague, seems doomed in turn because of the declining epidemic. Finally, Rieux found his wife who had moved away from the city. She is in good health and he plans to continue his fight as a committed doctor.
The death of Doctor Rieux’s wife
However, in the book published in 1947, the heroes do not experience this fate… Thus, Cottard loses his reason and opens fire on passers-by! The character ends up being incarcerated. Regarding Rambert, his happy ending with Laurence does not exist since it was invented for the needs of this television version!
Tarrou, for his part, dies of the plague after a long fight against illness. Finally, Doctor Rieux learns that his wife in fact died of tuberculosis while she was not with him…
As a reminder, Catherine Camus (the daughter of the philosopher who died in 1960) approved all these changes as explained by screenwriters Gilles Taurand and Georges-Marc Benamou during the press conference presenting La Peste: “She completely agreed because she felt like she was not betraying the spirit of the book.“
The four episodes of La Peste are available in replay on france.tv.