benyeagley's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 - great story, got repetitive about halfway through. And the epilogue was a pretty significant tangent, I enjoyed it but it felt totally separate from the book
roseybot's review against another edition
4.0
Mostly enjoyable, but a bit long. Maybe it's just that we're past the miasma theory and so the amount of time spent trying to convince us in the present that it was prevalent is a bit off putting. LOOK AT THOSE DUMB DUMBS, it seems to yell. I mean to say, it's not like we are the arbiters of truth these days either. Plenty of people, apparently, believe the earth is flat now.
I wanted more of the "terrifying epidemic" and less of the "let's solve a mystery that if you've taken a science class, or read about Victorian history at all, you've 100% heard of and know the answer to". But overall it was fine.
Days between when I added this to read and when I read it: 0. (untrue, I've had this on hold for ages at the library so I dunno what's going on there?)
| 1/27/19 32,114 ratings (9822 5*, 12511 4*, 7335 3*, 1772 2*, 674 1*) 3,026 reviews / added by 113419 people, 76623 to-reads
I wanted more of the "terrifying epidemic" and less of the "let's solve a mystery that if you've taken a science class, or read about Victorian history at all, you've 100% heard of and know the answer to". But overall it was fine.
Days between when I added this to read and when I read it: 0. (untrue, I've had this on hold for ages at the library so I dunno what's going on there?)
| 1/27/19 32,114 ratings (9822 5*, 12511 4*, 7335 3*, 1772 2*, 674 1*) 3,026 reviews / added by 113419 people, 76623 to-reads
koalathebear's review against another edition
4.0
It really was a very fascinating read.
With references to the Dickens' novel "Out Mutual Friend" and all number of other fascinating facts and figures about Victorian London, I found this book very absorbing. I had no idea that Fanny Burney underwent a mastectomy without the benefit of nothing except wine cordial to dull the pain. I had no idea that the living conditions in London at that time were so tightly compacted and squalid.
I loved the descriptions of the various scavengers who lived in London at that time - the ones who scoured the rivers, the ones who scoured the shores - the resistance of common understanding at that time to the notion that the disease might be spread by water - most believing in a concept of a 'miasma' that infected those who came into contact with it.
With references to the Dickens' novel "Out Mutual Friend" and all number of other fascinating facts and figures about Victorian London, I found this book very absorbing. I had no idea that Fanny Burney underwent a mastectomy without the benefit of nothing except wine cordial to dull the pain. I had no idea that the living conditions in London at that time were so tightly compacted and squalid.
I loved the descriptions of the various scavengers who lived in London at that time - the ones who scoured the rivers, the ones who scoured the shores - the resistance of common understanding at that time to the notion that the disease might be spread by water - most believing in a concept of a 'miasma' that infected those who came into contact with it.
qarielisabell's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
dcumberland's review against another edition
3.0
This book was a Christmas gift, but man it was tough to read. First with the obvious: it’s gross. Yes, it’s about the cholera epidemic in London. But it goes to painstaking lengths to provide the detail of symptoms and means of spreading the microbes. Secondly, the tone is very academic, despite the marketing trying to appeal to a more general audience. Lastly, like many other reviewers pointed out, the last chapter is a bit of a rabbit trail considering it is predictive. The author predicts what large scale points of failure will arise in our lifetime, much like cholera did for Londoners in the 1860s. Very interesting subject matter, but this just gets too deep in the weeds for my liking.