The Black
Death was a momentous time in western history. Indeed, some historians even
argue that it brought the end of the medieval era, forever changing its
religious, intellectual and social paradigm, and ushered in the age of the Renaissance.
Whether you subscribe to this view of the Black Death or not, it is undeniably –at
least, in my opinion- one of the most fascinating moments in history.
The Black Death, thought to have
originated in China, swept through Europe in 1347. There are three forms of
plague: bubonic, pneumonic, and septicaemic. Bubonic was spread by fleas
that lived on rats. It caused headaches,
fever, and swelling of the lymph nodes in the groin, armpits, and neck. These
swellings were called buboes, and often would turn black. Many medieval
physicians treated plague victims by lancing the buboes; they would use ointments
to ripen it, hoping that it would burst on its own. As a last resort, surgeons
would puncture the bubo. Around 50% of those infected with bubonic plague would
die within 3 days. If the infection invaded the lungs, then it was known as pneumonic
plague. It would cause the victim to cough, thus spreading the plague through
droplets. This form was particularly fatal; almost all who were infected would
die within a day. The final and most deadly form was septicaemic plague,
which occurred when the blood was infected. There were usually no symptoms, but
the victim would die instantly.
If I
was infected with the Black Death, I think I would rather get the septicaemic
form and die instantly rather than have to endure the horrendous symptoms of
the plague just to most likely die later. However, that’s not how most
contemporary medieval people saw it; the quickness of which the plague spread
and killed was what was most horrifying for them as it gave them no
time to make their final confessions and reconcile with those they have
wronged. For a society where Christianity dominated every aspect of life, this was worse than the symptoms
it brought.
Doomsday Book
Doomsday Book is set in the near future and
follows the endeavours of the University of Oxford history department, where
historians, with the capacity for time travel, are sent back to the
past to do field research. Normally, historians are only able to study in the
20th century, as earlier eras are deemed too dangerous to travel. However,
when the head of the Medieval Studies goes on vacation, the opportunistic
Professor Gilchrist sends his eager student, Kivrin, to study life in the 1320s.
Kivrin’s mentor, Professor Dunworthy, plagued with the conviction that
something is wrong, frantically attempts to bring Kivrin back. To his dismay, his convictions are confirmed
as he realizes that Kivrin is not in the 1320s but in one of the deadliest eras
in European history. His efforts, however, are hindered when Oxford is hit with
an unknown disease, confirming that the past is more connected to the present
than one would think.
Review
Doomsday Book was a gruesome tale of despair and
heart-wrenching deaths— not surprising for a book set in a time when around a
third of Europe’s population was wiped out. It went into great –and gory- details of the symptoms of the plague.
After all, the plague is not complete without lancing buboes, oozing sores, and
ghastly deaths. However, this darkness was supplemented with touching moments, compassionate
characters and unlikely friendships.
It was fascinating to read about the plague through Kivrin’s
–a prospective historian- eyes, since she construed her experience as a
historian by questioning what she learned and analyzing what she observed. As
such, Connie Willis takes a fascinating time in the middle ages that is
extremely easy to sensationalize, but by writing about it through the lens of a
historian, she is able to escape over-embellishing the story and write about it
in a more analytical way. Furthermore, by focusing on the experience of one
small village, Willis avoids making sweeping judgments and gross exaggerations
about this deadly period in Europe.
An issue that this novel brought up was how much can we
really know about the past? Kivrin felt she was completely prepared for her
endeavour to the past; she had the garb, she knew the social customs, and she
was familiar with the religious procedures. Not only was she well versed in Old
English, but she also learned Norman-French, German and Church-Latin, and that
if knowledge somehow failed her, she was equipped with a translator. What could
go wrong? Turns out, a lot. The three
years Kivrin spent studying for her expedition were not nearly enough to
prepare her for the realities that the middle ages held. Her clothing was
wrong, her dialect was wrong, her maps were wrong, and she was left to fend for
herself in an unfamiliar time. Although Kivrin spent all of her academic career
studying life in the middle ages, this was not enough to prepare her for realization
of how vivid, dynamic and real the people are who she met, befriended, and desperately
struggled to save when sickness spread.
I highly recommend this book, especially for sci-fi fans.
More Plague books
If you’re like me, then you can’t get enough of the plague,
and Doomsday Book will certainly
leave you begging for more. Well have no fear! Here are a few plague books that
I have read or have caught my eye:
Set in Philadelphia in the late eighteenth during the devastating yellow fever
epidemic, this Young Adult novel follows the brave young Matilda Cook’s
harrowing quest to survive and save her loved ones from the disease that killed
approximately 10% of the population. When I was young, this gripping tale kept
me up late into the night, clutching a flashlight and fanatically flipping the
pages. In fact, it was this novel that ignited my raging addiction to plague
tales.
Written through the eyes of Anna Frith, a housemaid in
England faces the horrors that the 1666 plague brings to her small village.
Short and sweet, this novel will keep you riveted until the last page.
While I haven’t had the chance to delve into this book yet, it’s
definitely on my must read list. John Hatcher, a renown historian, uses his
intimate knowledge of the middle ages as a template to recreate and image life
during the Black Death in a rural English village.
Happy readings!
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