10 h 36 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 10 h 36 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What makes a man stay when plague spreads through his city and others flee?
London, 1665. Bubonic plague spreads, and H. F., a saddler near Aldgate, faces a hard choice: leave or stay. He stays. As wealthy Londoners depart and deaths rise, he watches the streets, weighs rumours, and argues with himself about duty, faith, and fear.
In A Journal of the Plague Year, Daniel Defoe presents a fictional memoir filled with weekly death lists, city orders, and survivors’ stories. This calm account brings you close to a city under strain. Infected houses are shut up, desperate people seek protection, and the poor face dangers that wealth can help others escape.
What you’ll discover
- A witness who stays Follow H. F. as he observes a frightened city while questioning his own choices.
- Fear written in numbers See how weekly lists of the dead give shape to a spreading terror.
- Protection with a cruel edge Consider what happens when city orders turn infected homes into places of confinement.
- Desperation and false hope Encounter the quacks and false prophets who feed on people’s need for safety.
- Unequal suffering, human help Discover small human scenes where the burden falls hardest on the poor, yet some offer help.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you love eyewitness history, vivid street scenes, and practical questions about how people act under threat.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- The plague arrives quietly and is denied
- One man decides to stay in London
- Fear feeds on omens, prophets and quacks
- Shutting up houses divides a frightened city
- Escapes, grief and the great pit at Aldgate
- Three poor men walk out of London
- September brings despair and boldness together
- Charity, order and ships keep the city alive
- The invisible carrier and the case for running away
- The turn, the careless rush back and the forgetting
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Journal de l’année de la peste
by Daniel Defoe · 1722
A saddler in London weighs flight against staying as the plague closes in on his street.
Challenging10–20 hours to readfrançais
Excellent
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In short
What would you do if a deadly disease crept toward your street, and every sensible neighbour was packing a cart? That is the choice facing the narrator of this book, a London saddler who signs himself H.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
The plague arrives quietly and is denied
The story begins in 1664 with a rumour from Holland. Londoners hear that plague has returned there, and they soon forget it. Then two men die in Long Acre, near Drury Lane, and the weekly bill records the first plague deaths.
The relief does not last. Spring brings new cases, and then a death inside the walls. Families hide sickness, because a known case means a shut house and shunning neighbours. Searchers are bribed, and plague deaths are written down as spotted fever, teething or old age.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1722
- Language
- français
- Reading time
- 6 h 50 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Defoe, Daniel. A Journal of the Plague Year. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-journal-of-the-plague-year.
Defoe, D. (2026). A journal of the plague year. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-journal-of-the-plague-year (Original work published 1722)
Defoe, Daniel. A Journal of the Plague Year. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-journal-of-the-plague-year.
@book{defoe2026journal,
author = {Defoe, Daniel},
title = {A Journal of the Plague Year},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-journal-of-the-plague-year},
note = {First published 1722}
}
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What is A Journal of the Plague Year about?
It follows a London saddler, signed H. F., through the plague of 1664 and 1665. He decides to stay, walks the streets, records the bills of mortality, and describes the fear, the orders, the charity and the slow end of the sickness.
Is A Journal of the Plague Year a true story?
It is a work of fiction written as an eyewitness account. Defoe published it in 1722, long after the plague, and it draws on real events, real orders and real figures from the bills of mortality.
Who is H. F. in the book?
H. F. is the unnamed narrator, a saddler living near Aldgate. He signs the closing verse with those initials, and he tells readers which events he saw himself and which he only heard from others.
The author
Daniel Defoe
1660–1731 · English novelist and journalist
Daniel Defoe was an English trader, writer, and journalist. He was born in London in 1660 and died there in 1731. He wrote Robinson Crusoe and The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe in 1719. Moll Flanders, A Journal of the Plague Year, and Colonel Jack appeared in 1722.
More by Daniel Defoe
Voir tous ses livresMore like this
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