Scan barcode
qwedsa123's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
2.75
tregina's review against another edition
3.0
I find it difficult to give this a rating not only because of what it is--a book that straddles the fiction/non-fiction line, written centuries ago--but also because of the reasons I read it. I wasn't looking for the story, but for insight into the time period, the science and the language and the people and the geography. It's part anecdote and part statistic, and it makes me wonder what it would have been like to be a contemporary reader of something like this, when it felt like an authentic representation of something that could conceivably happen again tomorrow and not a fictionalized account of something that we no longer fear...or if we do, not at all in the same way or context.
kstephensreads's review against another edition
4.0
This book was fascinating to me, as we are still in the midst of the pandemic. There were so many social parallels that were striking to me, although the severity of the illness is quite different. The vivid accounts of suffering under the Black Plague will stay with me for a long time. My husband is probably glad I’m finished with it so I will stop talking about it all the time.
angus_mckeogh's review against another edition
3.0
Paraphrasing: those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it. Figured I’d go through this book during our present crisis. It’s pretty fascinating how certain things mirror exactly what is taking place currently. Namely the public’s insistence on returning to “normal” too early and suffering a backlash. However, the style is a bit like reading actuarial tables and documents mixed with personal stories of hearsay, as opposed to a narrative “journal” of someone living during The Black Death.
jsdrown's review against another edition
4.0
Is Daniel Defoe employing the use of an unreliable narrator?
In the book our protagonist contradicts himself throughout. At times H. F. thinks that the plague targets those deserving of it. Liars, cheats, etc. There's a group of rowdy bar patrons that make fun of the dying and poor. H.F. believes they are smited by god one by one over the course of four days.
The thing is... these guys wander the city. They rub shoulders with people fresh from the burial pits. H.F. even talks frequently about innocent and poor people taken by the plague.
And this is not the only example. H.F. doesn't believe isolating from the plague helps. That it only made the plague worse somehow? H.F. forgets things. Stories are cut off and admitted to be hearsay later. You get the idea. I should have taken notes. But like H.F. you'll have to take my word for it, haha.
What I'm trying to understand is if Defoe intentionally presents H.F. as unreliable. Or is the book simply outdated. Any help would be appreciated. I blasted through this one in a couple of days and it has my thoughts racing. I’m honestly curious if it was an intentional, stylistic choice.
- Justin
In the book our protagonist contradicts himself throughout. At times H. F. thinks that the plague targets those deserving of it. Liars, cheats, etc. There's a group of rowdy bar patrons that make fun of the dying and poor. H.F. believes they are smited by god one by one over the course of four days.
The thing is... these guys wander the city. They rub shoulders with people fresh from the burial pits. H.F. even talks frequently about innocent and poor people taken by the plague.
And this is not the only example. H.F. doesn't believe isolating from the plague helps. That it only made the plague worse somehow? H.F. forgets things. Stories are cut off and admitted to be hearsay later. You get the idea. I should have taken notes. But like H.F. you'll have to take my word for it, haha.
What I'm trying to understand is if Defoe intentionally presents H.F. as unreliable. Or is the book simply outdated. Any help would be appreciated. I blasted through this one in a couple of days and it has my thoughts racing. I’m honestly curious if it was an intentional, stylistic choice.
- Justin
molybdenite42's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
3.0
michad's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.5
Eerily reminiscent