The plague in London

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First edition of the book from 1722

The Plague in London (Original: A Journal of the Plague Year ) is a book by Daniel Defoe that appeared in the form of a fictional report in 1722 . It is about events during the Great Plague of London in 1665 and is one of the great plague and plague stories in world literature .

content

When the plague struck the city on the Thames for the fourth time in the 17th century , it would be the most devastating epidemic since the plague first appeared in the British Isles, the Black Death in the mid-14th century. London was like a cauldron. Quacks and bag cutters, regardless of the puritanical strictness of morals, took advantage of the hour to turn people's misery into tinkling coins. Hysterical superstition, devastating unemployment, lies and deception were the side effects of a mass extinction to which around 100,000 people fell victim.

shape

Defoe had already elevated his reporting technique, which had been tried and tested in numerous earlier journalistic works, to a narrative style in his novel Robinson Crusoe . The realistic portrayal of a fictional event not only as an experience but as an already experienced reality was his great strength. Narrated and reflected in the sense of puritanical self-control from the perspective of an active hero, Defoe succeeded not only in his adventure novels , but above all in his report on the plague year in London, to achieve the highest level of credibility with his audience - based on precise research and written sources and eyewitness accounts that he artfully embellished with his own experiences. The protagonist is a London merchant who remains in the city despite the danger and contrasts his observations and experiences with the hysterical rumors about the danger zone. The book was believed to be authentic for a long period of time, as if Defoe had been there himself.

background

Daniel Defoe experienced the Great Plague at the age of five in his native London. Presumably, he used the notes of his uncle, who witnessed the plague first hand, as a basis.

expenditure

  • Daniel Defoe: The plague in London . Translation by Werner Barzel, Nymphenburger, Munich 1987. Also in paperback by Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main 1996.
  • Daniel Defoe: The plague in London. Radio play. Speaker Gert Westphal , radio play adaptation by Sebastian Goy , published by Radio Bremen , CD, Audioverlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-89813-182-3 .
  • Daniel Defoe: A journal of the plague year , ISBN 0486419193 (2001 English edition).
  • Daniel Defoe: The plague in London . Translation by Rudolf Schaller, Jung und Jung, Salzburg 2020, ISBN 978-3-99027-249-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c The plague in London by Daniel Defoe - classic of epidemic literature. Sigrid Löffler in conversation with Andrea Gerk, a report on Deutschlandfunk on March 17, 2020, accessed on June 7, 2020.