A Journal Of The Plague Year
The haunting cry of a bell-ringing collector of plague victims, "Bring out your dead!", has echoed across the centuries.
It survives in historical consciousness thanks to this classic 1722 account (long a staple of college literature courses) of the epidemic of bubonic plague that ravaged England nearly 60 years earlier.
A child of 5 in the plague year, Daniel Defore applied his considerable talents as both a journalist and a novelist to this historical and fictional reconstruction of the Great Plague of London in 1664-1665, written in the form of an eyewitness report by a Londoner named "H. F."
- Defoe's novel abounds in memorable and realistic details, surpassing even firsthand accounts in its air of authenticity.
- Long a staple of college literature courses, A Journal of the Plague Year will fascinate students, teachers, and general readers alike.
- "A cunning work of art; a confidence trick of the imagination."- Anthony Burgess
Here's Part 8 of #AJournalOfThePlagueYear, a classic chronicle of the Great Plague of London by Daniel Defoe... The obvious #book to read in #21daylockdown is #DanielDefoe’s #AJournalOfThePlagueYear, written about the events of 1665, when #London was mortified by bubonic disease.#COVID2019 #WednesdayMotivation #StayAtHome Not the #nurses I know, #Defoe—they are goddamn HEROES.#fightcovid19 #ajournaloftheplagueyear pic.twitter.com/PkIU3Tfk0r
In tonight's episode, Londoners, then as now, chafe at being confined to their homes:
Sallies and Retreat https://t.co/SoGtc3bBN9 #TheMarkSteynClub #TalesForOurTime pic.twitter.com/K1UO8NuZIT
Daniel Defoe was born in 1660 in London, England. He became a merchant and participated in several failing businesses, facing bankruptcy and aggressive creditors. He was also a prolific political pamphleteer which landed him in prison for slander. Late in life he turned his pen to fiction and wrote Robinson Crusoe, one of the most widely read and influential novels of all time. Defoe died in 1731.
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