Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks
From the Back Cover:
When the plague visits an isolated village in the English countryside, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine and healer.
Through Anna’s eyes we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers endure a self-imposed quarantine to keep the disease from spreading. As death reaches into every household and villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must find the strength to confront the disintegration of her community and the lure of illicit love. As she struggles to survive and grow, a year of catastrophe becomes instead annus mirabilis, a year of wonders. Inspired by a true story, Year of Wonders is a richly detailed evocation of a singular moment in history. With stunning emotional intelligence, Brooks blends love and learning, loss and renewal into a spellbinding and unforgettable read.
Simultaneously, I’m listening to this audio book, also about the Bubonic Plague. So, yes, I’m kind of obsessing over pandemics.
From the publisher:
The Great Plague is one of the most compelling events in human history, even more so now, when the notion of plague—be it animal or human—has never loomed larger as a contemporary public concern
The plague that devastated Asia and Europe in the 14th century has been of never-ending interest to both scholarly and general readers. Many books on the plague rely on statistics to tell the story: how many people died; how farm output and trade declined. But statistics can’t convey what it was like to sit in Siena or Avignon and hear that a thousand people a day are dying two towns away. Or to have to chose between your own life and your duty to a mortally ill child or spouse. Or to live in a society where the bonds of blood and sentiment and law have lost all meaning, where anyone can murder or rape or plunder anyone else without fear of consequence.
In The Great Mortality, author John Kelly lends an air of immediacy and intimacy to his telling of the journey of the plague as it traveled from the steppes of Russia, across Europe, and into England, killing 75 million people—one third of the known population—before it vanished.
By the way, the watch is a Hamilton Ventura, a 1988 replica of the original 1957 electric wrist watch. Also known as the Elvis watch. Elvis wore it in Blue Hawaii (1961). The Men in Black franchise also features the Hamilton Ventura.
Another excellent book on the Plague is “The Doomsday Book,” by Connie Willis.
Kivrin, a history student at Oxford, plans a visit to the Middle Ages, as all aspiring historians are expected to visit the past now that the time machine is available. A small calibration error lands her right in the midst of the Black Plague…and while she is immune to the disease, the people that she comes to care about are not. Very well-done.
I have read “The Doomsday Book” and enjoyed it. Thanks.
Timely, but we are nowhere near Great Plague conditions — what we have is the moral equivalent of mixed metaphors followed by modifiers and fear.
Of course we are not close to to the conditions of the Great Mortality. Which makes me hugely grateful for modern medicine.
My point was that economic hysteria has been pointless, other than for the weaklings who hope to destroy society.
I lived through Infantile Paralysis over decades, no shut down, although some people did not go to the movies. I did, so too everyone in my family. We all got on with our lives. And I do not give a rat’s toe nail about the governors of New York, Michigan or California.
Add the Governor of Virginia, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez add her stupid squad,,,,, and that fat slob Michael Moore. Mop your floor with Michael Moore.
Barry:
Inside every Progressive is a totalitarian just waiting to get out and create another Marxist utopia, AKA hell on earth.
In the words of Randolph Scott, ‘My sentiment, exactly.’ Then he killed the bad guys.
Barry:
My favorite Randolph Scott Movies:
1. Seven Men from Now (1956)
2. The Tall T (1957)
3. Decision at Sundown (1957)
4. Buchanan Rides Alone (1958)
5. Ride Lonesome (1959)
6. Comanche Station (1960)
7. Ride the High Country (1962) A masterpiece.
Love your list, and as you must know, the line is from Ride The High Country, spoken by Randy to Joel. Re Decision at Sundown, I knew Charles Lang fairly well, and was close to Valerie French for awhile.
On my favorite Randolph Scott films, add Western Union, Abilene Town, and for whatever reason, Pittsburgh.
Valerie French was wonderful in Jubal and Decision at Sundown and one of my very favs: Shalako (1968) with Sean Connery and Brigitte Bardot. I see that French died at the age of 62. So young. So sad.