A Journal of the Plague Year

Paperback, 352 pages

English language

Published June 20, 2007 by Book Jungle.

ISBN:
978-1-59462-831-3
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OCLC Number:
156825172

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3 stars (9 reviews)

This account of the Great Plague of London (1664-65) was first published in 1722. In it Defoe describes the horrifying daily events in London city as it was besieged by bubonic plague.

25 editions

Review of 'A journal of the plague year' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

This was a fascinating semi-fictional account of the London plague epidemic of 1665 - semi-fictional because the narrator, a saddler, is Defoe's invention (Defoe himself having only been a child at the time of the events narrated here), but the historical events described are real.

Of course, the ideas of how plague spread and what to do to prevent infection from the time are largely incorrect, but many of the behaviours around a frightening infectious disease - including the premature relaxation of all caution once the disease recedes even slightly, prolonging the overall epidemic - are eerily familiar to those living through the COVID-19 pandemic today.

Defoe's narrator also clearly describes the different types of plague (most clearly bubonic and septicemic, although he potentially exaggerates the prevalence of the latter) now known to arise from Yersinia pestis.

From a modern perspective, the text itself is not exactly engaging: True to …

Review of 'A journal of the plague year' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

A haunting account of the 1665 plague in London, this almost reads like Dante's Inferno or Purgatorio, in which the author takes you on a tour of the world that seems to be falling apart around them.

Reading this in 2020, you'll see many parallels (stay-at-home orders, social distancing, daily numbers, etc), but it's also a small consolation that we live in more modern times and that the mortality rate of COVID19 isn't as bad as the bubonic plague.

Defoe gives us statistics along the way and throughout the year, although having a geographic grasp of each town he mentions would help while reading it. There's also a short tale about a small group of men who escaped the city and went from town-to-town in the countryside. On one hand it's very descriptive and thrilling, but on the other it makes you wonder how he came across the information.

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Subjects

  • European history (ie other than Britain & Ireland)
  • History
  • History - General History
  • History: World
  • Europe
  • Europe - General
  • History / Europe / General