A Journal of the Plague Year

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category: print > books

author: Daniel Defoe

publisher: Penguin

format: softcover/paperback

dimensions: 5.07 x 7.79in

pages: 336

isbn: 9780140437850

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"The most reliable and comprehensive account of the Great Plague that we possess" —Anthony Burgess

In 1665, the Great Plague swept through London, claiming nearly 100,000 lives. In A Journal of the Plague Year, Defoe vividly chronicles the progress of the epidemic. We follow his fictional narrator through a city transformed-the streets and alleyways deserted, the houses of death with crosses daubed on their doors, the dead-carts on their way to the pits-and encounter the horrified citizens of the city, as fear, isolation, and hysteria take hold. The shocking immediacy of Defoe's description of plague-racked London makes this one of the most convincing accounts of the Great Plague ever written.