GREAT BOOKS 29: Why Read in Dark Times? Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year, with Jenny Davidson

<p>Why read books in dark times? Daniel Defoe, known to most as the author of <a href= "https://www.amazon.com/Robinson-Crusoe-Daniel-Defoe/dp/150329238X/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=Robinson+Crusoe&qid=1584936404&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyTjk5NzNTUUxLVEpSJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMTU2NzcxMTZTREw2SFgxUjI1SyZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwODI2OTM5MkhITERRMEJBRVVDRiZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU="> Robinson Crusoe</a>, published <a href= "https://www.amazon.com/Journal-Plague-Year-Daniel-Defoe/dp/B085KBSW6D/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=A+Journal+of+the+Plague+Year&qid=1584936439&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzQlNINEVIRU1NSzQzJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwODU0MzY1MlIyMjgyNUFFTDU0TCZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwOTA4NjIwVk1US0U3SUQxS0QzJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ=="> A Journal of the Plague Year</a> in 1722, about the plague that decimated London's population in 1665. The gripping account is presented as a survivor's story who confronts his world being ravaged by an invisible and extremely contagious disease. But Defoe survived the plague as a five-year-old by leaving London. The book he published some fifty years later is a fictional recreation of a period when most certainties and routines held dear by Londoners crumbled around them. Why did people not heed the first warnings and prepare better? How did they behave once the pandemic devastated neighboring parishes? Did the crisis bring out the best in people? And how did Defoe's narrator account for his choice to stay in the city when he had the chance to escape, only to realize that protecting his property was a vain concern when faced with imminent and gruesome death all around him. </p> <p>Why read such a book right now, during the COVID-19 global pandemic? <a href= "https://english.columbia.edu/content/jenny-davidson">Jenny Davidson</a>, a literary scholar, novelist and extreme athlete, is an expert on Defoe and novels in general. She explaine