Does anyone know of any historical fiction books on the Black Death?

Question

I'd love to learn more about to bubonic plague but not out of a text book. Anyone know of any good fiction books on the black death??

Answer 1

There's also Poe's short story, "The Masque of Red Death", which is wonderful and scary. Of course, the classic you have to read, written almost at the time of the Plague, is Bocaccio's "Decameron" which is about a group of young nobles trying to flee the plague and the stories they tell each other to keep themselves distracted. It was written just a year or so after the Plague. Highly recommended!

Answer 2

Books About The Black Death

Answer 3

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (1992). A Hugo award and Nebula award-winning historical science fiction novel, in which a time-traveler inadvertently ends up in the plague-ridden England of 1348.

The Plague Dogs (1977), by Richard Adams. A fictional story in which two dogs, Rowf and Snitter, escape from a British government research laboratory and are hunted down by the government as potential carriers of the Plague.

The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson (2002). Presents an alternate history of the world where the population of Europe is obliterated by the Black Death setting the stage for a world without Europeans and Christianity.

Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks (2002). Based on a historical village whose denizens quarantined themselves to avoid further spread of the disease.

Answer 4

Fortune's fool by Rafael Sabatini.This book is set in late spring of 1665 when plague was raging across England.Both the hero and the heroine contracts it.

A succession of misfortunes marked the career of Randal Holles. Bearing the same name as his father–a signatory to the death warrant of Charles I–and himself a soldier in Cromwell's army, England is no place for him after the Reformation. Having lost every trace of his beloved Nancy Sylvester, he goes to Holland from whence he returns after a lapse of years, down and out, to find all doors closed and the shadow of the gallows hanging over him. As a last chance of escape he accepts an ignoble commission from the Duke of Buckingham to abduct a famous actress and deliver her into the Duke's hands. The actress turns out to be Nancy. The plague, then raging in London, delivers her from the Duke and gives Randal an opportunity for heroism that reinstates him in Nancy's favor and in his worldly fortunes.

Answer 5

There is a book by Rosemary Horax which is full of primary sources regarding the Black Death. It is the anti-thesis of a textbook, and its wicked good, we used it in a college class I took about the Black Death. Word of advice...don't trust the internet to teach you accurately about it. Also, check out Boccaccio's Decameron.

Answer 6

"The Doomsday Book" by Connie Willis is one of my favorite books, and its focus is the plague; "Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague" by Geraldine Brooks would also be a good choice. "The First Eagle" by Tony Hillerman is a good detective story about a modern case of the plague if that interests you at all.

Answer 7

The House on Hound Hill by Maggie Prince. Really good book!

Answer 8

"Sarum" by Edward Rutherfurd [sic]. This novel is lengthy and covers hundreds of years (or more) of English history, but it does contain a significant portion on the Black Death. It follows the lives of several families over the years. It's long but quite readable and interesting.