A Journal of the Plague Year, Daniel Defoe

Word spreads long after many dead, would be a adequate head liner for the daily newspaper. Over ten thousand lives taken per week by the plague. Peaking during August and September of 1665, the plague seemed as if this " mysterious" disease were about to overcome London. The wealthy an privileged moved to villages and towns to try and escape the horrific death.




By 1722, Daniel Defoe had published a journal, A Journal of the Plague Year. Defoe built this journal from his very own child memories, the accounts of family members and others, city records, and research. He would find more helpful information from pamphlets and books written previous years before. With the resources collected, a fictional journal travels though a time of death in number, society broken down, and London at its worst. The people of this time had no clue how or what to do to prevent this disease from spreading."Visitation never perceived that they were infected till they found their unspeakable, surprise, the tokens come out upon them; after which they seldom lived six hours"- The Infection Spreads. Society did not have the knowledge of rats and fleas being the culprit of the infection. So this mystery disease created a border line morbid eyewitness account. However, I find the journal interesting and plausible.









Quarantines were set for anyone who had been in contact with the disease. However, the law was seldom followed. For even the near death would find an escape. "I heard of one infected creature who, running out of bed in his shirt in the anguish and agony of his swelling, ....., snatching the coat from him, he threw her down, ran over her, ran downstairs and into the street...plunged into the Thames"- A Violent Cure. Memories from "survivors" helped create the sense of a realistic journal. Defoe combined history, experience, and memorabilia to have an "authentic" journal. In review, A Journal of the Plague Year, written by Daniel Defoe, was a nicely composed piece of work.