A Journal of the Plague Year (Daniel Defoe)

In 1665, the Great Plague swept through London, claiming nearly 100,000 lives. In "A Journal of the Plague Year," Defoe vividly chronicles the progress of the epidemic. We follow his fictional narrator through a city transformed--the streets and alleyways deserted, the houses of death with crosses daubed on their doors, the dead-carts on their way to the pits--and encounter the horrified citizens of the city, as fear, isolation, and hysteria take hold.