A Journal of the Plague Year - Daniel Defoe

Imagine a plague so horrific, only forty percent of the population lived to tell the tale. Written as a first-person account of the world’s most dangerous pandemic, the mysterious narrator bears witness to a society that has seemingly given up hope during terrifying times.

From mounting death tolls, to horrific bodily ailments, contracting the Black Plague was considered a fate worse than death. Combining his own experiences within each of the two stories, the enigmatic narrator, known only by the initials, H.F., gives a dark and detailed account of one of the most horrific pandemics in human history. H.F. recounts two stories of uniquely different Londoners doing everything in their power to avoid contracting the plague. One story tells of a poor man who takes shelter on his boat, away from his infected wife and child. This man uses his boat to bring provisions to various communities by the water, doing all he can to support sick families. The other story is describes a group of three men, each of different professions, who escape the village in an effort to survive together off the land.

Bearing uncanny similarities to the Coronavirus spreading across the globe today, A Journal of the Plague Year is, perhaps, a comforting reminder that times could always be worse.