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The Journal of the Plague Year
- London, 1665
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
Editorial reviews
Writer, merchant, and spy Daniel Defoe, now best known for Robinson Crusoe, presents a fictionalized first-person account of the Great Plague that afflicted London in 1665.
The Journal of the Plague Year: London, 1665 offers detailed, journalistic scenes of shuttered London homes and storefronts and dead bodies on the streets. In some parts of the city, infected families were quarantined as the death toll climbed toward 100,000 and a sense of paranoia and terror pervaded the city.
In an American accent, Nelson Runger serves up a crisp, steady performance of Defoe’s chronicle of a historical disaster.
Publisher's summary
London's Great Plague of 1665 devastated the city, as Europe's final bubonic outbreak killed thousands of helpless citizens. Daniel Defoe, author of the classic Robinson Crusoe, was five years old when the Plague swept through London, and grew up hearing many stories - some truthful, others exaggerated - of its deadly effects. Blending those anecdotes with his childhood recollections and factual data from government registers, Defoe wrote this comprehensive account of what happened to London in 1665. Both a harrowing historical novel and a reliable journalistic record, Defoe recreates a living, suffering city trying to cope with an incurable, rapidly spreading disease.
Critic reviews
"...the work stands as the most reliable and comprehensive account of the Great Plague that we possess." (Anthony Burgess)
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In this satirical faux autobiography, Moll Flanders, abandoned at birth, sets her rebellious heart on a life of independence in late 17th-century England. A strong-willed woman, she is determined to make a better life for herself, no matter what it takes: thievery, prostitution, seductions, marriages, or illicit liaisons. Born to a convicted felon in Newgate prison Moll learns to live off her wits, refusing to be a helpless victim and defying most traditional depictions of women of the era.
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Great read wonderful narrator
- By Ricardo on 02-05-09
By: Daniel Defoe
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A Room with a View
- By: E. M. Forster
- Narrated by: Rebecca Hall
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In this rich new audio production, acclaimed British American actress Rebecca Hall brings one of E. M. Forster's most admired works to life in this classic tale of human struggle. A charming young Englishwoman, Lucy Honeychurch, is wooed by both free-spirited George Emerson and wealthy Cecil Vyse while vacationing in Italy. Though attracted to George, Lucy becomes engaged to Cecil despite twice turning down his proposals. On hearing of the news, George confesses his love, leaving Lucy torn between marrying the more socially acceptable Cecil or George, the man she knows would bring her true happiness. Should Lucy choose social acceptance or true love?
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A lovely performance, and a wonderful story
- By Robert on 01-19-19
By: E. M. Forster
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1066: The Year That Changed Everything
- By: Jennifer Paxton, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Jennifer Paxton
- Length: 3 hrs
- Original Recording
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With this exciting and historically rich six-lecture course, experience for yourself the drama of this dynamic year in medieval history, centered on the landmark Norman Conquest. Taking you from the shores of Scandinavia and France to the battlefields of the English countryside, these lectures will plunge you into a world of fierce Viking warriors, powerful noble families, politically charged marriages, tense succession crises, epic military invasions, and much more.
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History brought to life
- By Joshua on 07-10-13
By: Jennifer Paxton, and others
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The Decameron
- By: Giovanni Boccaccio
- Narrated by: Simon Russell Beale, Gunnar Cauthery, Alison Pettitt, and others
- Length: 28 hrs and 5 mins
- Original Recording
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The Decameron is one of the greatest literary works of the Middle Ages. Ten young people have fled the terrible effects of the Black Death in Florence and, in an idyllic setting, tell a series of brilliant stories, by turns humorous, bawdy, tragic and provocative. This celebration of physical and sexual vitality is Boccaccio's answer to the sublime other-worldliness of Dante's Divine Comedy.
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Not Up to the Usual Naxos Standard
- By John on 11-15-17
What listeners say about The Journal of the Plague Year
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- Rochaneitor
- 12-30-21
history repeats itself
everything is very similar to what is going on i our time i really recommend this book
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- squishy
- 03-26-21
Written when?!
Good lord this could have been written today! Very interesting, no it’s not a novel or “story” but much can be learned. Chapter 10 could be applied exactly today. Ppl’s attitude on how you get it, they are fine, how there needs to be contact tracing,etc. Even the “God’s wrath” belief is the same! We seem to have learned nothing, it was all laid out here.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Lance Kapral
- 12-03-20
Great read
Defoe, like all Brit-lit, is brilliant as always in this gripping and frightful tale of a deadly resurgence pf the Plague. Eerily similar to the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of the measures taken...human nature never changes.
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- Kindle Customer
- 04-16-19
history fact or fiction
The story is very interesting with points never thought of before I read the book, BUT if the author was only a little boy during the actual plague year how did he know all this information. So the story could be factual but it seemed to have a little fiction thrown in for good measure.
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- Me
- 12-12-21
Great book
I liked the book. It is more like a seminar than a story. If you like college lectures you will like this book. I really enjoyed the narrative and will seek out other books read by him.
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- Catherine Puma
- 10-25-21
How History Repeats Itself...
Published over 60 years after the event, "A Journal of the Plague Year" by Daniel Defoe chronicles the bubonic plague that raged in London and the surrounding English countryside from 1665-1666. Defoe was only a young boy when the plague took place, so years later he took public accounts and anecdotal evidence to put this docu-drama together.
Defoe uses the framing device of fictional characters living in London throughout the epidemic as a means through which to discuss factual events while also protecting himself from criticism in case he got certain particulars incorrect. I quite enjoyed "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston, so I was drawn to how Defoe describes this great plague. It is a bit long for something that is much more descriptive than being extremely character or plot driven, but the plague vs. the city of London herself are more characters than individual people are, so I give this book a lot of slack for that.
As such, I am not an historian for this period, so I took a lot of what Defoe describes at face value. I could not help but compare and contrast how the transmission and spread of the plague, as well as how people responded to mass graves and forced shut downs, to what the United States of America has been facing since March 2020. Data suggests that nearly 100,000 out of over 700,000 (or ~15%) of the London population died from the 1665 bubonic plague, while only over 700,000 out of nearly 331 million (or ~0.15%) of the U.S. population has died thus far from COVID-19. This is not to diminish how horrible COVID has been, for we are still going through our pandemic, and with all of our medical advancements and understandings of how disease transmission and prevention works, my biggest takeaway from "A Journal of the Plague Year" is that human behavior has not changed that much in the past 350+ years.
For any infectious disease historian or researcher of this period in London's history, this is an essential read. Quite eery at times, especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic I'm living through at the moment, this was a fitting October/Halloween Time read. In 10-20 years, I will be looking to read what docu-dramas have been written about 2020-2022 U.S. history. I recommend this to anyone willing to reflect on how other people across time have suffered similarly nation-stopping and panic-inducing diseases.
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- D.A.
- 05-18-05
An eye-opening education
My wife was glued to this book, amazed by the facts. It is not a book one listens to for fun or entertainment. It is not a novel it reads more like a journal, a first hand account. It is story after story of a terrifying disease and how it not only destroys the body but the soul as well. One must have a deep interest in the plague or any plague to fully appreciate and understand the affect such a fearful ordeal will have on humanity. If this is the reason one listens to this book, then it is truly and eye-opening account and worth every minute.
Thank you Audible for including it in your book list!
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19 people found this helpful
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- JDpenelope
- 09-21-15
Many penetrating insights by Defoe make for fascinating listening.
I gained a much better understanding of the conditions that people of London endured during the mid 1660's. Defoe describes what was done by authorities (whether helpful or not) to contain the disease, its spread to other neighborhoods and towns, the effects on the different classes and efforts to help those in need, as well as actions (both legal and otherwise) of residents to escape both the disease and the resulting loss of freedom if you and yours were suspected of being so afflicted. Defoe's study, it is said, was the first historical novel, and was derived at least in part from a journal kept by an adult who lived through the Great Plague. Defoe himself was a small boy during the terrible year, but the terror of that year was so great that it remained in survivors for the rest of their lives. Defoe acts as an enlightened scientist would, in his vigorous effort to understand and convey ways to prevent or at least contain another plague, should one come --Fortunately, this great plague was the last scourge of its kind. Still, it brought to mind the fact that new and deadly strains of influenza could bring comparable suffering internationally in modern times--And indeed, already has, especially after World War I.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 10-26-21
Yet I Alive!
This narrator did a really wonderful job of voicing H.F. He really sounded much like one might imagine the character looking and made a VERY dry book much more engaging. It is a long book, but truly feels like the author must have been hanging around London or New York in 2020!
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- Eric K Doepel
- 12-11-20
2020 Vibes
Listening to this during the pandemic is eerie. Turns out, people don’t change.
A good listen, but the audio itself is a little dated, and you can definitely tell.
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1 person found this helpful