With all of this talk about pandemics going around at the moment, now might be a good time to pick up my copy of Deadly Companions by Dorothy H. Crawford.
Better still I should have a look around Ebay and see if I can pick up one of these seventeenth-century physician’s plague suits, like the figure is wearing on the cover. Maybe not though. I think the fright of seeing someone walking around the streets dressed like that, is enough to cause a few deaths on its own.
So what’s your favourite plague related book then? Boccaccio’s The Decameron (contains one of the best contemporary descriptions of the symptoms of the Black Death)? Something wholly factual like The Black Death edited by Rosemary Horrox (highly recommended. Lots of contemporary accounts)? Or maybe a contemporary tale such as Karen Maitland’s Company Of Liars? Drop me a comment and let me know
About Rob
although it’s a made-up plague and the book is a metaphor for the french resistance during world war two, my favorite plague novel is “the plague” by albert camus. but that should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me
says:
Brittney, How could I have missed out such a tremendous book? Then again I was thinking more literal than metaphorical, but then again (again
)), read solely on the level as a book about a plague, I’ve got to agree with you – stupendous!!
once i finish the book i’m on, i should definitely give “the plague” another read. as you said, now is a good time for it.