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For an excellent fictional account, I suggest The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis, about a historian who time travels back to study the aftermath of the Black Death and finds herself caught in the middle of it.
Jun 3, 2008 · By focusing on the experiences of ordinary villagers as they lived-and died-during the Black Death (1345-50), Hatcher vividly places the reader directly inside those tumultuous times and describes in fascinating detail the day-to-day existence of people struggling with the tragic effects of the plague.
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The incredible true story of how a cycle of rain, cold, disease, and warfare created the worst famine in European history—years before the Black Death, from the author of Justinian's Flea and the forthcoming Miracle Cure. In May 1315, it started to rain.
In a world where proponents of the old ways fiercely battle those with progressive minds, the intrigue and tension quickly reach a boiling point against the devastating backdrop of the greatest natural disaster ever to strike the human race—the Black Death.
- A Journey to 14Th-Century England
- Everything’s Gone wrong. Badly wrong.
- The Tale Shifts from The 14th Century to The 21st, and Back Again
- An Exciting Tale, Well Told
- About The Author
- For Related Reading
Kivrin Engle is a bright and adventurous first-year student in medieval history at Oxford’s Brasenose College. In the mid-21st century, time travel is well established as a method for historians to study conditions over the past four or five hundred years, and Kivrin is eager to explore 14th-century England. Together with the acting head of medieva...
Somehow, Kivrin has fallen violently ill with a flu-like disease. She arrives in the forest near Skendgate delirious with fever. Back in Oxford, a similar disease is spreading fast, filling up first the university infirmary and then all available rooms for the fast-growing number of patients as the epidemic spreads. The National Health Servicequara...
Meanwhile, in 21st-century Oxford, Dunworthy frantically seeks to discover what’s gone awry. But distractions constantly intrude. His secretary repeatedly insists that he make decisions about inconsequential matters. A visiting American archaeologist demands his help in getting access to her dig at the ruins of Skendgate. A troupe of American bell-...
We know, of course, that Kivrin has actually been transported not to 1320 but to 1348, the year the plague came to England. (We know that because this award-winning novel is so widely discussed as a story about the Black Death.) But neither Kivrin nor Dunworthy is aware of that at first. In fact, throughout most of the action, both believe that she...
Connie Willis (1945-) is one of the most honored authors in science fiction. She has won eleven Hugo Awards and seven Nebula Awards for individual works—more major SF awards than any other writer.Doomsday Book is one of just twenty-five novels that have won both the Hugo and Nebula since the year the latter was first granted in 1966. Others include...
I’ve also reviewed two comic novels by Connie Willis, The Road to Roswell (An award-winner’s comic alien abduction story) and Crosstalk (When “too much information” gets all too real). For another, much less successful, novel about time travel to the mid-14th century, see Timeline by Michael Crichton (Nonstop action in this time travel thriller). I...
Apr 30, 2023 · The Black Death: A Personal History, authored by history professor John Hatcher, paints an incredibly detailed portrait of a small town in medieval England during the plague, while also introducing human elements that keep the narrative grounded and emotionally accessible for contemporary readers.
Feb 16, 2016 · 2,293 ratings235 reviews. The Black Death Sweeping across the known world with unchecked devastation, the Black Death claimed between 75 million and 200 million lives in four short years. In this engaging and well-researched book, the trajectory of the plague’s march west across Eurasia and the cause of the great pandemic is thoroughly ...
