Journal of the Plague Year (PDF)

Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year is now available in PDF from Scholars Bank at the University of Oregon Libraries.

A matter of interest: often described as a novel (Defoe was about age five at the time of the events his "author," a sadler from Southwark, describes). I would describe it as more like a mockumentary (albeit of the serious type). I could envision selecting Ken Burns as the best choice for a director of a "movie version." The use of, and analysis of, the actual death bills and city regulations from 1664 make this a more than usually historic document than one might expect from approaching it as a novel.

In the spirit of the original, I have dedicated this transcription to Rebecca and Robert, two of the vivid (but alas, fictional) characters whose moving circumstances are so vividly and memorably presented in the story.

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