"A Journal of the Plague Year" by Daniel DeFoe ***

• Summer Sub Club read with Beth
• English author
• Originally published in 1722
• Vocabulary:
• Quotes:
• p.13..."London might well be said to be all in tears; the mourners did not go about the streets indeed, for nobody put on black nor made a dress of mourning for their nearest friends; but the voice of mourners was truly heard in the street."
• p.91..."I have heard also....one in particular who was so absolutely overcome with the pressure upon his spirit  that by degrees his head sank into his body, so between his shoulders that that the crown of his head was very little seen above the bone of his shoulders...."
• p.109..."If you shut up all bowels of compassion, and not relieve us at all..."...odd expression
• Notes:
• Signs from God:  comet seen in sky several months ahead of plague onset
• Belief in prophecies, prophesiers made money off dire predictions and fear
• A time of breaches between sects of the Church of England
• Parliament passed, "An Ac for the Charitable Relief and Ordering of Persons infected with the plague"
• the system of having watchmen at infected homes and the efforts to outwit the watchmen was intense
• group grave pits, people throwing themselves into them
• the need to shop for provisions became a real downfall, as people could not self isolate indefinitely
• rules of social conduct and law fell by the wayside (i.e., people in narrator's brother's warehouse pillaging
• clever system of ships sitting off the shore to self quarantine
• fear of immediate death "took away all bowels of love" for other
• story of the three brothers
• Review:  Daniel Defoe is a fascinating writer.  He can write a marvelous melodrama and then create a novel that reads as if it is non-fiction.  This fictional documentation of the great plague of 1665 in England is quite remarkable.  Apparently some historians think it is better than actual documentation in its ability to convey the progression and social repercussions of this horrifying black death.  He carefully lays out the slow unraveling of the societal fabric.  He seems to say that fear and suffering result in chaos and irrational behavior.  The desire to survive drives people to behave in ways they would not otherwise even consider or believe themselves capable of.  I have to say that the power of this book seems, unfortunately, as relevant now as ever.  With an Aids epidemic, Ebola epidemic, and threats of biological warfare in our lives,  it is a pretty scary insight into the likely chain of events should some form of massive biological threat present itself.  This was not a fun read, but very thought provoking.