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 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.

Author: Daniel Defoe
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 11/13/2001
Series: Modern Library Classics
Pages: 272
Weight: 0.5lbs
Size: 8.10h x 5.16w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9780375757891

About the Author
Jason Goodwin's works include Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire; A Time for Tea: Travels Through China and India in Search of Tea; and On Foot to the Golden Horn: A Walk to Istanbul.