I picked up this book because it seemed to coincide so naturally with both my scholastic pursuits and my personal interests. Nevertheless, I expected a textbook-neutral but overall in-depth account of the Black Death that swept across medieval Europe.

I was more than pleasantly surprised. Though I was slightly annoyed at Kelly's anthropomorphising of the disease itself and all the awful metaphors that come with it (the disease takes rest in towns, then goes to attack another "feeling refreshed", More...

A creditable and highly readable overview of the subject, perhaps somewhat hampered by lack of enough anecdotal "on-the-ground" records to add personal flavor. Most enjoyable part of the book for me was the description of the papal town of Avignon and its filth and intrigues. Kelly provides a clear arc of the disease's progression; this might be the best go-to, primer book on the subject of the great plague of the middle ages (and, as he makes clear, it was not the only plague to have broken out More...

Rating Clarification: 3.5 Stars

This book had its ups and downs, but overall it was a very informative book for anyone with more then a passing interest in the black death - and hey, who doesn't like reading about black buboes, vomiting, violent pain, abandonment by family/friends, and a lonely death - especially around the Christmas season?

On the plus side, author John Kelly knows his stuff. His book takes the reader to the original ground zero on the Eurasian steppes, and follows the progressio More...

If you LOVED Fifty Shades of Grey...


this is not the book for you.

I'm curious about the psychological, sociological, and economical impact the Black Death had on the affected countries. How did it invade their outlook on life, their culture, and how did it impact religion.

Most of us know the history of how the Black Death marched around Europe. We know it probably started in Caffa and made its way full circle to Russia leaving horrible suffering in its wake. John Kelly could have gone the dry as dust scholarly route but instead makes the Plague almost like the villain in a novel. I don't know if its possible to anthropomorphize a disease but that's what he did. It skipped, it ran, it lay in wait. It hid in corners and ran from fire. Some readers liked it, some th More...

This book was on my wishlist over at Paperbackswap.com for some time because I was genuinely interested in the Black Plague period of history. This book made me seriously question my interests, not because of gruesome details but because the book is so dry. The author spends almost 100 pages describing the geography of Europe and Asia in excruciatingly painful detail, but I persevered. He personified the plague virus as some sort of nomad wandering around Europe and infecting whenever and wherev More...

Amazon blurb: A book chronicling one of the worst human disasters in recorded history really has no business being entertaining. But John Kelly's The Great Mortality is a page-turner despite its grim subject matter and graphic detail. Credit Kelly's animated prose and uncanny ability to drop his reader smack in the middle of the 14th century, as a heretofore unknown menace stalks Eurasia from "from the China Sea to the sleepy fishing villages of coastal Portugal [producing] suffering and death o More...

I am fascinated by disease and usually assume the worst when I, or someone close to me, gets sick. Cough? It's definitely tuberculosis. Tired? That's probably African Sleeping Sickness. Fever? You've probably got Ebola. A touch of diarrhea? That's most likely dysentery. So, I went into this book ready for the death and distruction of the disease and eager to be absolutely fascinated by it. The book wasn't bad. It was a little textbooky for my taste, a little boring and I disliked the anthropomor More...

This was a very readable and meticulously researched account of the Black Death that made great use of contemporary accounts. The statistics are a bit numbing at times, but this reflects the nature of the Black Death itself. The author has a tendency to overuse certain metaphors and occasionally becomes a bit fanciful in recreations of what a particular medieval figure may have been thinking or feeling, but overall I would recommend this book.

I'm not a huge non-fiction fan, but I make a concerted effort to read one every month or two. This book was very interesting, it focused on the Bubonic Plague and went through most of Europe discussing how the major cities of the time were before the plague, during the plague, and after. It also talked a bit about leading theories of how the plague started, moved around etc.

If anything just getting a better picture of how ridiculous the impact of that event was made this book worthwhile. I feel More...

This book was recommended by a friend who shares my love of world history. Again, he was correct in assessing this little book as good reading.........I was fascinated by the march of the Black Death as a living entity across the continents of Asia, Europe and beyond (I was surprised that it actually reached Greenland). Utilizing the writings of survivors of the plague and "after the fact" observers, Kelly weaves a tale of unremitting horror, death, suffering and economic chaos as Y pestis struc More...

This is an excellent overview, written for the layperson. Extremely well-researched (once I figured out the endnote section!!) without being ponderous. Kelly's anecdotal, story-telling style--which does take his interpretation a little far beyond the facts (see comments)--is like a spoonful of sugar, which is not to say that he's making the Plague more palatable, but he is bringing energy and momentum into what could have become a truly mind-numbing set of statistics.

A couple of things I really More...

One of the best books I've ever read, and one of the most superb historical books about a very specific topic on a continental scale. The author has read the medical and historical literature including what seems like all first hand accounts. The story is woven exquisitely and he ties in humanity to the horror. Unfortunately what humanity did to itself (the jews) during the plague was far worse than the Plague. The ending chapter which discusses the impact of the plague was exactly what I was lo More...

A historical account of the 14th century plague epidemic, and a gripping one at that. Kelly takes us through the beginning of the epidemic, and the travels of a Genoese ship carrying an infected crew. He gives us a timeline of when and where the plague traveled, a glimpse into what it must have been like to wait for the first sign of plague to occur in your town once the epidemic was recognized, and enough details about the fortitude of the black rat to make you shudder.

The only negatives about More...

Once John Kelly gets to the 'intimate' portion of his The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, his overview of the most destructive human plague in history becomes a fascinating collection of vignettes. The book works best when it focuses upon its mission to collect very small and anecdotal stories of human triumph, perseverance, greed, and folly in the face of inconceivable adversity. In these later portions of his well-documented and researched study, the portraits Kelly pa More...

I really, really wanted to like this book.

After all, it combined two of my nerdiest obsessions: Late Middle Ages history and Y. pestis, my favorite bacteria. (I'm a microbiology nerd- and besides, everyone should have a favorite bacteria.)

Sadly, John Kelly tweaked too many of my pet peeves to make me truly enjoy this book.

Allow me to list a few:

"... Petrarch dined with the aristocratic Colonna, walked the beaches of Naples with the beautiful Queen Joanna, attended audiences with Clement VI- if More...

It goes without saying that in order to enjoy this, you have to have a love of history and/or a really comfortable attitude toward suffering. Make no bones about it (pun!), this is a story of how approximately half of Europe died over the course of about two years. That said, it's surprisingly breezy and full of real historical characters that really keep it fascinating.

Given how interwoven the Black Death became to middle ages society, it would be impossible not to find some memorable historic More...

Who says non-fiction can't be as engrossing as fiction? Well, it wouldn't apply in this case. Kelly's book is every bit as engrossing as any fast-paced novel. His account of the 1347-1351 plague that decimated Europe's populations is masterly. He has complete control over the big picture (and wowsa, this picture is big!)but also brings the lot of individuals to the reader in a brilliantly engaging way. At times, the Black Death itself seems to take on a life of its own and is like the worst sort More...

Overall a very readable story of The Black Death. Less academic and text bookish than many, it had a good balance of historical perspective and human anecdotes. Although some were bothered by the anthropomorphizing of the plague bacilli, I found this technique used sparingly to be rather entertaining and create suspense.

A surprise to me was the chapter on Anti-Semitism during the Black Death. This was new history to me and very disturbing. Easily an under reported part of the Black Death story. More...

Below is an excerpt of a longer essay you can find on my blog The Celery Museum.

The author of The Great Mortality: An intimate history of the Black Death, John Kelly, is that rare almost apocryphal being, a popular historian who uses primary source material with the subtlety of an academic historian. He writes with the literary engagement and aplomb academic historians feel they must eschew to be taken seriously, while employing mountains of primary source research, direct quotes and occasionall More...

Unfortunately, many readers tend to view books about history as a sleep-inducing recitation of dry events and dates. John Kelly's The Great Mortality is one of those works that proves there are some wonderful history books out there.[return][return]The Great Mortality is subtitled "An Intimate History of the Black Death." Intimate accurately describes how Kelly weaves the story. He writes in such a way that the Black Death takes on its own malevolent personality. Kelly follows this devastating More...

I found the recount of an Indian legend on pg.10 most fascinating…
Oimmeddam is what the American Southwest Indians call the plague, the wandering sickness.

“Where do you come from?” an Indian asks a tall, black hatted stranger. “I come from far away,” the stranger replies, “from…across the Eastern Ocean.” “What do you bring?” the Indian asks.
“I bring death,” the stranger answers . “My breath causes children to wither and die like young plants in the spring snow. I bring destruction. No matter how More...

I thought the first 1/3 of this book was a 4/5 star review of what exactly happened in 1348 throughout Europe that ended up killing 30-50% of the populous. The last 1/3 was also 4/5 start review of how all this death changed the people, changed their religious views, lead to the persecution of Jews, and is similar to the lost generation after WWI. The second 1/3, however, is closer to 3/5 stars, and was for the most part boring anecdotes throughout the villages the Plague effected in chronologic More...

The cover of this book is scattered with quotes about the paradox of a book about the plague being entertaining, and the book is very entertaining. However, this book isn't all about the plague of the 1340's; about 1/3 of it is spent describing the historical setting in the various cities that the plague visited. Tales of the Pope, queens, regents, intermingle with surprisingly intimate details from merchants and peasants. The details put an undeniably human face on one of the worst disasters in More...

John Kelly's history of the Black Death is carefully researched and eminently readable. The first chapters examine the origins of the plague and discuss how it was transmitted from fleas to humans and carried across Europe by black rats and international trade. The scientific discussions are well-written for a lay audience, giving the reader a good understanding of how and why the plague spread as quickly as it did. The work is fast-paced and rich with anecdotes about medical practices of the mi More...

I didn't find this book as interesting as I thought. There were fun historical details, and a good history of how the plague most likely spread from central Asia to Europe. But after a while it felt a bit repetitive. Each chapter told how the plague unfolded in a different city, and after a few chapters, you got the basic idea, although some cities reacted differently than others (some burned Jews at the stake while others didn't, for instance). Some events were actually explained in one place a More...

This may well be the funniest book I've ever read about the Black Death. Kelly's a good writer with a wry sense of humor. I also enjoyed the way he personified the plague- it's something I've always done in my head, too. I can just see Yersinia pestis striding through the countryside, scythe in hand.

I've read a lot of plague books, so much of the information was familiar to me- but there's a lot of fascinating first-hand reporting from various sources, much of it new to me. The last chapter, abo More...

Kelly writes an engaging and interesting history of the Black Death, ready fodder for history buffs or those who, like me, have an unhealthy interest in epidemiology. Kelly struggles at times to say something new (lots of people died...THEN lots of other people died) but his chapters on anti-semitism, the Flagellants, English stoicism, and medieval celebrities' reactions to the plague made this sad story come alive. He takes a few shortcuts with his research (he settles for non-period accounts o More...

The Black Death is something that I think will always fascinate me. This book is well written and makes use of sources from the time, quotes from people who actually were there, who lived through it (and some who were less fortunate and died from it). Some places, the author writes as if nature has a specific will and intelligence of its own: that nature "needs" a "population control method" and then,with evolution on goal-oriented high-speed, churns out some bacteria to "fix the problem". In po More...