It's the plaaaaaague!

[damned_colonial]

It's July 1st. Let the "Plagues and Pandemics" discussion begin!

I'll be posting some questions/prompts for discussion over the next month, at least one a week and hopefully a bit more than that. If anyone else has points for discussion, please feel free to post with them. I am responsible for making sure *some* discussion posts happen, but I'm happy to share!

For now I'd like to open up with something very general:

What have you noticed are the main similarities and differences between the various plague stories you've read?

What impressions did you get regarding the author's historical research? How do you think the author's understanding of the period in question affected the way the story was told?

Comments

[starlady]

I noticed the dilemma of the author's knowledge playing itself out, too--in some ways I actually thought Fever, 1793 solved the problem most elegantly, since Andersen has the Benjamin Rush vs. the French doctors (with Rush being basically a medieval quack, and the French being modern) debate play out within the book, and actually have readily observable consequences for the protagonist and her family. I live right near Philadelphia, actually, and it was something of a shock to see Rush taken down those pegs, since he's still something of a favorite local son.

In general, living near Philadelphia, I thought Andersen did a great job of capturing it as it was at the time--which isn't surprising, since she lives in the PA suburbs of Philly.