The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time (P.S.)
by John Kelly
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 456)
Read in May, 2008
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 ...more
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Read in September, 2008
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.
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Read in October, 2008
A review of the origins, transmission and devastating effects of "the worst epidemic the world has ever seen". A fascinating read, not too sciencey, and full of personal stories which really put the whole event into perspective. What struck me as a really original approach was to document the spread of the causative agent (the bacterium Yersinia pestis) almost as a flock of wild animals, as though it has its own consciousness, and knew where it wanted to be and what it wanted to do. No...more
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Read in November, 2007
“We are a spectacle to the world. Let the great and humble, by our example, see to what state they shall be inexorably reduced, whatever their condition, age, or sex. Why then, miserable person, are you puffed up with pride? Dust you are, unto dust you return, rotten corpse, morsel and meal to worms.” - inscription on the tomb of Cardinal Jean de Lagrange, a victim of the plague
A bit repetitive at times, but a good survey of the Black Death and its devastating effect on European society ...more
A bit repetitive at times, but a good survey of the Black Death and its devastating effect on European society ...more
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Read in October, 2008
I read this book over the course of several days with many interruptions so through no fault of the author I find it difficult to think of the book as a coherent whole.
Kelly went into great detail about where the plague continues to live today. The strain that survives in marmots is particularly vicious and the danger was apparently well known by natives centuries ago.
The book is great for little snapshots of how different communities became infected by and responded to the plague. Th...more
Kelly went into great detail about where the plague continues to live today. The strain that survives in marmots is particularly vicious and the danger was apparently well known by natives centuries ago.
The book is great for little snapshots of how different communities became infected by and responded to the plague. Th...more
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Read in February, 2008
Very interesting book that made me supremely grateful that I did not live in Europe in the 1300s. A little hard to get into at first, and then all of a sudden it sucked me up. What I found most interesting was the study of the hygienic, economic, military, societal, and religious factors that pretty much made the middle ages in Europe the most perfect breeding ground for the black death. After that, the author spends the rest of the book jumping from country to country, exploring the spread ...more
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Read in September, 2008
I enjoyed this book immensely, but had to mark it one star lower than amazing because of the author's odd choice to clarify questionable sources at some times and not at others. In other words, some of the time he explains why a particular source might not be thoroughly reliable while at other times he quotes clearly questionable material (such as the manuscript "proving" that Jews and Muslims conspired to sell out France) without putting any qualifiers on it whatsoever. He also make...more
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Read in August, 2008
I really enjoyed this book even though it wasn't what I was expecting. I bought this book thinking it'd be a historical account of how the black death started, how it spread and the social, economical and medical ramifications of this plague. But this book was all that and MORE.
John Kelly brought us into the lives of many people living in the time of the black plague. We hear of anguished fathers and husbands burying their family, of parents trying to rip off their late-children's estates, ...more
John Kelly brought us into the lives of many people living in the time of the black plague. We hear of anguished fathers and husbands burying their family, of parents trying to rip off their late-children's estates, ...more
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
Historians
The subject matter was quite interesting. I learned a great deal about the epidemiology of the Black Plague, from its path of infection through Europe to the mechanisms of infection. It was interesting to hear firsthand accounts of the plague taken from the historical records. However, the author was quite presumptuous. He spent a good deal of time writing about the feelings of the people of the time, which had gathered from reading between the lines, when he really didn't know how they were...more
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Read in May, 2008
In terms of readability, this book is pretty fantastic. The Plague is a facinating subject if you're at all interested in history, healthcare, random trivia, I COULD GO ON. As a result, this book is incredibly interesting, but I feel it could have done so much more with the subject; the facts are repetitive and, frankly, I didn't feel I needed a breakdown of what percentage ("with the knowledge that mideval records are famously inaccurate" blah blah) of people died in each major city...more
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You want horror? Boys and girls this is real life horror. Western Civilization very nearly died in the Middle Ages. This book explains how. I found it fascinating that the Plague was the source of Anti-Semitism as well as Christian apocolyptic thinking.
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
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Read in February, 2008
I first read this book a couple of years ago and loved it (in spite--or perhaps because--of the grim subject matter), and for some reason found myself in the mood for it again recently. It was just as satisfying the second time around. The book is a truly fascinating look at the Black Death, including the science of pandemics, the historical tides in Europe and Asia, and the way the pandemic likely played out in everyday life. The glimpses into the lives of those who survived (and did not surviv...more
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Read in May, 2007
recommends it for:
Lindi, and others like us who enjoy thinking about pandemics
A fascinating socioeconomic/epidemiological history of the plague that swept from the Asian steppes to the edges of Europe in the mid-1300s. The author uses contemporary accounts--diaries, tax records and the like--so the reader connects with actual individuals who lived though the horror. Most intetresting to me was the discussion of the ways in which the Great Mortality spurred technological and economic development in the decades after the dying was done. He even discusses the scientific di...more
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Read in January, 2008
This book annoyed me. The author had an annoying tendency to tease with promises of descriptions of life during the plague years drawn from historic texts that never really panned out, descriptions of events that really had little to do with the subject, and an awful tendency to anthropomorphize the plague virus itself--as if a virus has any thought about what it does and who it's going to strike. He also had an agenda that he pushed in not-so-subtle ways. Of the several books I've read recently...more
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Delivers what it promises - a very thorough layman's history of the Black Death. The details on 14th century life and the origins of the disease were absolutely fascinating. Drags a little when it traces the path of the disease in maybe a bit more detail than I needed ... but otherwise a good and always interesting book.
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Read in January, 2008
I am a history buff. I like to read almost any kind of history. This is nicely written and brings in some interesting primary sources. Kelly brings in some interesting links such as the fact that the initial Black Death came into a European population already weakened by several years of famine; that the 1348-52 instance was one of three major plague epidemics; and that along with the plague several other disease epidemics combined with endemic warfare to decrease the population by 50-70%. O...more
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Read in August, 2008
According to the author, he set out to write a book about the plagues we might face in the future, but in the course of his research ended up writing about the plague of our past. This is an incredibly informative text, giving not only a medical overview of the bubonic plague, but a history of the cultural, sociological, and climatological elements that led to one of the worst epidemics humans have ever faced. The book is rich with quotes from contemporary sources, not just about the plague, but...more
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Read in September, 2008
recommended to Eileen by:
Seattle Public Library newsletterrecommends it for: people worried about the next pandemic.
A good basis on the plague taken mainly from contemporary writings, with a lot of historical facts thrown in. One of the main things to take away from this book, and others like it, such as The Great Influenza by John Barry, is that a lot of people in pandemics die just from lack of care. When caregivers flee or are themselves incapacitated, everyone suffers. This is likely to be a factor in any new pandemic of this severity. Even the SARS epidemic strained the resources of the communitie...more
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The early middle ages were pretty filthy, which is comforting once you get to about the middle of this book and start getting paranoid that there's going to be another huge plague outbreak. Is that a bubo I feel erupting . . .?
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 3.86 (273 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 3.85 (260 ratings) number of reviews: 69
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quote
"[According to 1348 theorists, poisoning of Christian water by Jews was the cause of Black Death.]
Even the poison used to contaminate the Christian water supply was described in meticulous detail. It was "about the size of an egg," except when it was the "size of a nut" or a "large nut," "a fist" or "two fists"- and it came packaged in "a leather pouch," except when it was packaged in "linen cloth," "a rag," or a "paper coronet"; and the poison was variously made from lizards, frogs, and spiders- when it was not made from the hearts of Christians and from Holy Communion wafers."
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