A study guide for Daniel Defoe's "A Journal of the Plague Year"

By Gale and Cengage

A study guide for Daniel Defoe's "A Journal of the Plague Year", excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students series. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cengage Learning - Gale
• Release date: May 2, 2016
• ISBN: 9781535821469

Book preview

09

A Journal of the Plague Year

Daniel Defoe

1722

Introduction

While Daniel Defoe is best known for Robinson Crusoe, the tale of a shipwrecked sailor, his novel A Journal of the Plague Year is counted among his literary masterpieces. The work was originally published in 1722 and recounts the horrific events that occurred in England in 1665 and 1666, when the bubonic plague devastated the country. A first-person narration, A Journal of the Plague Year is told from the point of view of a London tradesman who signs his account with the initials H. F. The plague was revisiting Europe at the time Defoe wrote and published his novel, and the book is often seen as the author's attempt to shape the politics of the management of another outbreak in England, should it occur. In this fictionalized account of the months of devastation and death, Defoe vividly details the particulars of how the plague attacked the body and decimated populations, and he also represents the terror and despair of individuals in particular and communities in general. Such descriptive realism is perhaps the most acclaimed feature of the work.

A Journal of the Plague Year was originally published in London in 1722 by E. Nutt and is available in a modern edition published by Dover Publications in 2001.

Author Biography

Little information about Defoe's early years is available. His given name was actually Daniel Foe (he altered his surname later in life), and the precise date and place of his birth are not recorded, although some scholars have theorized, based on circumstantial evidence, that Defoe was born in the fall of 1660 in the St. Giles Cripplegate parish of London. His parents, James and Alicia Foe, had two daughters before Defoe was born. James Foe was a member and officeholder of the Butcher's Company and also worked as an apprentice butcher, but many scholars believe that he worked primarily as a tradesman and merchant. Defoe was sent to schools operated by Dissenters, those members of the Church of England who opposed the rules of conformity created by the bishops of the Church. He lived through the plague that devoured London in 1665 and 1666. After completing his studies at an academy run by Dissenter Charles Morton, Defoe worked in London as a tradesman, merchant, and speculator. He married Mary Tuffley in January of 1684. The following year, Defoe joined the rebellion headed by the Duke of Monmouth against King James II of England, who had only recently ascended to the throne. Monmouth, who was the illegitimate son of James's father, King Charles II, and his followers feared the fate of English Protestantism under James's rule and objected to James's perceived partiality toward the Roman Catholic Church. At this time, Defoe had written numerous unpublished manuscripts, as well as pamphlets that