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The Great Mortality (Paperback)

by John Kelly (Author) "THIS BOOK BEGAN AS AN INQUIRY INTO THE FUTURE AND ENDED as an investigation of the past ..." (more)

3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Paperback: 364 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial; 1 edition (Jan 19 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060006935
ISBN-13: 978-0060006938
Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 13.5 x 3 cm
Shipping Weight: 273 g

Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #130,925 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Popular in these categories:

#39 in	Books > Professional & Technical > Medical > Medicine > Internal Medicine > Pathology > Forensic Medicine
#41 in	Books > Science > Medicine > Specialties > Pathology > Forensic Medicine
#41 in	Books > Medicine > Specialties > Pathology > Forensic Medicine

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Product Description

From Amazon.com

A book chronicling one of the worst human disasters in recorded history really has no business being entertaining. But John Kelly's The Great Mortality is a page-turner despite its grim subject matter and graphic detail. Credit Kelly's animated prose and uncanny ability to drop his reader smack in the middle of the 14th century, as a heretofore unknown menace stalks Eurasia from "from the China Sea to the sleepy fishing villages of coastal Portugal [producing] suffering and death on a scale that, even after two world wars and twenty-seven million AIDS deaths worldwide, remains astonishing." Take Kelly's vivid description of London in the fall of 1348: "A nighttime walk across Medieval London would probably take only twenty minutes or so, but traversing the daytime city was a different matter.... Imagine a shopping mall where everyone shouts, no one washes, front teeth are uncommon and the shopping music is provided by the slaughterhouse up the road." Yikes, and that's before just about everything with a pulse starts dying and piling up in the streets, reducing the population of Europe by anywhere from a third to 60 percent in a few short years. In addition to taking readers on a walking tour through plague-ravaged Europe, Kelly heaps on the ancillary information and every last bit of it is captivating. We get a thorough breakdown of the three types of plagues that prey on humans; a detailed account of how the plague traveled from nation to nation (initially by boat via flea-infested rats); how floods (and the appalling hygiene of medieval people) made Europe so susceptible to the disease; how the plague triggered a new social hierarchy favouring women and the proletariat but also sparked vicious anti-Semitism; and especially, how the plague forever changed the way people viewed the church. Engrossing, accessible, and brimming with first-hand accounts drawn from the Middle Ages, The Great Mortality illuminates and inspires. History just doesn't get better than that. --Kim Hughes --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

The Black Death raced across Europe from the 1340s to the early 1350s, killing a third of the population. Drawing on recent research as well as firsthand accounts, veteran author Kelly (Three on the Edge, etc.) describes how infected rats, brought by Genoese trading ships returning from the East and docked in Sicily, carried fleas that spread the disease when they bit humans. Two types of plague seem to have predominated: bubonic plague, characterized by swollen lymph nodes and the bubo, a type of boil; and pneumonic plague, characterized by lung infection and spitting blood. Those stricken with plague died quickly. Survivors often attempted to flee, but the plague was so widespread that there was virtually no escape from infection. Kelly recounts the varied reactions to the plague. The citizens of Venice, for example, forged a civic response to the crisis, while Avignon fell apart. The author details the emergence of Flagellants, unruly gangs who believed the plague was a punishment from God and roamed the countryside flogging themselves as a penance. Rounding up and burning Jews, whom they blamed for the plague, the Flagellants also sparked widespread anti-Semitism. This is an excellent overview, accessible and engrossing.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews

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3.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)

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3.0 out of 5 stars Decent, but with weak areas, Aug 20 2008

By	Tommy Tom Tom (toronto canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Kelly organizes this book by region - discussing the plague's effect on Avignon in one chapter, Italy/Rome in another, England in another, etc. This is a very logical way to do it, but a problem which arises is that Kelly keeps repeating, in a solemn "with respect to the dead" type of tone, that 30 to 45% of the population of X died in the 1348 etc. This happens again and again, in chapter after chapter. I don't know what the solution to this is, and maybe there isn't one, but it does become boring.

Another thing I didn't like about the book is when Kelly fictionalizes, every now and then, how the plague entered some town. For example, he'll kind of ask you to imagine with him some dairy maid picking up the plague from a stranger, and then sleeping with some local, who passes on the plague to his circle of friends, etc etc. I didn't need this. Instead of creating a story for me, just go with the bare facts... i.e. Avignon was hit by the plague in May 1348 and leave it at that.

What I found to be a strong feature of the book is when Kelly told some historical anecdotes - backing away from the plague story to describe a court romance or strange trial that happened in one city or another around the time of the plague. I like nuggets of historical gossip like this, and these passages were actually what really spiced up the book for me.

SO - I would recommend this book, it does give a nice overview of how Europe was affected by the plague, but don't feel obligated to read every single sentence.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Informative Read, Mar 31 2008

By	Zadius Sky (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

With roughly 340 pages and fourteen chapters (including Introduction and Afterword), "The Great Mortality" is an informative and an interesting read on the historical study of The Black Death, an infamous disaster of the fourteenth century. In this work, John Kelly brought about the graphic details and accounts about the plague in vary of cities during the period of 1347 to 1351. The author did a great deal of research into secondary sources to bring together this work on the impact of the Black Death.

On the other hand, the author's writing style and organization of the book is a bit off. While it is an informative read, I found it a bit difficult to follow what the author is saying as most of it a bit repeating. It does not exactly flow, in my opinion, and I had to put it down a few times.

Personally, I think it is a good informative book for the lay person to understand the impact of the worst plague of medieval era, with millions dead within a few years. As for those of us who are knowledgeable on the subject, I found it to be a bit repetitive and it needed more sources, especially primary documents.

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5.0 out of 5 stars very interesting, Mar 12 2007

By	L. Bogdan (Saskatoon) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I couldn't stop after finishing the last page. I like the author's style of writing, informative and captivating. He shows how the plague affected the common people. It depicts how death can affect human social behaviour.

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