A Journal of the Plague Year
Defoe's account of the bubonic plague that swept London in 1665 remains as vivid as it is harrowing. Based on Defoe's own childhood memories and prodigious research, A Journal of the Plague Year walks the line between fiction, history, and reportage. In meticulous and unsentimental detail it...
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Defoe's account of the bubonic plague that swept London in 1665 remains as vivid as it is harrowing. Based on Defoe's own childhood memories and prodigious research, A Journal of the Plague Year walks the line between fiction, history, and reportage. In meticulous and unsentimental detail it renders the daily life of a city under siege; the often gruesome medical precautions and practices of the time; the mass panics of a frightened citizenry; and the solitary travails of Defoe's narrator, a man who decides to remain in the city through it all, chronicling the course of events with an unwavering eye. Defoe's Journal remains perhaps the greatest account of a natural disaster ever written.This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the original edition published in 1722.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780375757891 (0375757899)
Publish date: November 13th 2001
Publisher: Modern Library
Pages no: 250
Edition language: English
3.5 to 4 stars, read for university.
I find it difficult to give this a rating not only because of what it is--a book that straddles the fiction/non-fiction line, written centuries ago--but also because of the reasons I read it. I wasn't looking for the story, but for insight into the time period, the science and the language and the p...
Considered as a work of fiction, it's not much of a novel, rambling around and sometimes repeating itself, including some dry details about the numbers of dead (including charts). However, as an account of the plague, written by someone who experienced it, it's pretty fascinating.
This was a very interesting read, but it was also very difficult to follow. The lack of chapters, meandering streams of thought, and repetition caused me to skim large chunks of the book. Being a first of it's kind, that was to be expected.It was interesting to see how they tried to contain the outb...
Even though it's a fictional journal this book reflects the haunting reality of the plague days. The text meant to be a journal there's no real plot in it but many short stories of victims and comments on the way the disease was handled. Not all that entertaining but very informative.
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