Journal of a Plague Year (Modern Library Classics) - Softcover

Daniel Defoe

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0375757899 ISBN 13: 9780375757891

Publisher: Modern Library Inc, 2001

Synopsis

Since 1917 The Modern Library prides itself as The modern Library of the world s Best Books . Its paperback series feature treasured classics, major translations of great works, and rediscoveries of keen literary and historical merit. Featuring introductions by leading writers, stunning translations, scholarly endnotes and reading group guides. Production values emphasize superior quality and readability. Competitive prices, coupled with exciting cover design make these an ideal gift to be cherished by the avid reader. 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

About this title

Review:

"A cunning work of art; a confidence trick of the imagination."
--Anthony Burgess

From the Back Cover:

Defoe's classic reconstruction of the Great Plague of 1665 is the most compelling account of natural disaster in all literature. Narrated by an imaginary 'Citizen who continued all the while in London', A Journal of the Plague Year scans the streets and alleyways of the stricken capital in its effort to record the appalling suffering of plague victims. At once horrifying and movingly compassionate, it is a nightmare vision of the modern city laid to waste.

About this edition

• Publisher: Modern Library Inc
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0375757899
• ISBN 13: 9780375757891
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272