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takecoverbooks's review against another edition
dark
informative
sad
fast-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Torture, and Antisemitism
Moderate: Physical abuse, Violence, Excrement, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Chronic illness and Blood
jhbandcats's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Parts of this history of the Black Death are quite dry - percentages of how many people died in certain cities in certain years, etc - and parts are vividly detailed, like the man saying he just buried his wife and five children with his own hands.
The author divides the book into chapters based on the lead-up to the plague, the various countries where it was epidemic, and the aftermath. He includes a chapter on the Jewish pogroms, how they - and occasionally lepers and / or the English - were blamed for poisoning wells to spread the plague.
That chapter was the hardest for me. I already knew the awful stories of the Black Death but I was ignorant of a lot of the retaliation. Amongst the general populace it was based on fear and ancient hatred. For the landowners, debtors, and municipalities, it was all economic: kill the wealthy Jewish moneylenders and erase all the debts, and confiscate all their property.
The reason I didn’t rate this higher - after all, it’s definitive scholarship - is the jarring contemporary phrases.
“the first theological Super Bowl”
“each armed with the equivalent of a thermonuclear device” [repeated mentions of nuclear bombs]
“slitting each other’s throats with the happy abandon of Mafia clans”
“pathogenic equivalent of a piranha”
“[Pope] Clement V … transformed the Church into a spiritual Pez dispenser”
Every time I came across one of these anomalies - and there were a lot more - it interrupted my reading concentration because all I could think of was how annoying it was.
That said, if you want a comprehensive overview of the Great Plague, this is a good place to start.
The author divides the book into chapters based on the lead-up to the plague, the various countries where it was epidemic, and the aftermath. He includes a chapter on the Jewish pogroms, how they - and occasionally lepers and / or the English - were blamed for poisoning wells to spread the plague.
That chapter was the hardest for me. I already knew the awful stories of the Black Death but I was ignorant of a lot of the retaliation. Amongst the general populace it was based on fear and ancient hatred. For the landowners, debtors, and municipalities, it was all economic: kill the wealthy Jewish moneylenders and erase all the debts, and confiscate all their property.
The reason I didn’t rate this higher - after all, it’s definitive scholarship - is the jarring contemporary phrases.
“the first theological Super Bowl”
“each armed with the equivalent of a thermonuclear device” [repeated mentions of nuclear bombs]
“slitting each other’s throats with the happy abandon of Mafia clans”
“pathogenic equivalent of a piranha”
“[Pope] Clement V … transformed the Church into a spiritual Pez dispenser”
Every time I came across one of these anomalies - and there were a lot more - it interrupted my reading concentration because all I could think of was how annoying it was.
That said, if you want a comprehensive overview of the Great Plague, this is a good place to start.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, War, and Classism
aeudaimonia's review against another edition
dark
informative
sad
medium-paced
4.0
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I was already obnoxiously interested in historical plague surges and John Kelly has done nothing but enable me. Looking forward to being as insufferable as possible at upcoming family gatherings.
Even though I enjoyed it like I would a 5-star book, I think it's more accurate to put it at four. Some chapters are more engaging and well-written than others; occasionally I got the impression that Kelly was reaching for more content. For example, his chapter on Avignon contains several pages devoted to the trial of Queen Joanna of Naples and her lover, Luigi of Taratino, concerning the suspicious death of her Hungarian husband Andreas. Other focal points of the chapter include the papacy of Avignon, the poet Petrarch's relationship with Laura de Sade, and the musician Louis Heyligen. While plague remains in the backdrop of these stories, the fact remains that I picked up The Great Mortality to read about the Great Mortality-- not about Joanna and her lover, beautiful and tragic though they be. These stories are certainly interesting but I still wish they'd been cut; if not cut, at least abridged.
I see that other reviews have already mentioned his penchant for melodrama and repetition. Personally I didn't mind the repetition so much; I felt that the statistics he offered each chapter were relevant and added to the picture. As for the former, there's a thin line between humanizing the distant past and making a charicature of very real suffering. Now, I doubt I myself could have walked the line as well as Kelly does, but it's worth mentioning that there were several instances in which I had to wonder: Did you keep this paragraph because it's necessary, or because you relish your own creative grasp of the macabre?
Nevertheless, this was an absolutely fantastic read. I borrowed this book from a family friend, but I'll probably buy a copy for myself soon so that I can return to it whenever I want. Definitely recommend!
Even though I enjoyed it like I would a 5-star book, I think it's more accurate to put it at four. Some chapters are more engaging and well-written than others; occasionally I got the impression that Kelly was reaching for more content. For example, his chapter on Avignon contains several pages devoted to the trial of Queen Joanna of Naples and her lover, Luigi of Taratino, concerning the suspicious death of her Hungarian husband Andreas. Other focal points of the chapter include the papacy of Avignon, the poet Petrarch's relationship with Laura de Sade, and the musician Louis Heyligen. While plague remains in the backdrop of these stories, the fact remains that I picked up The Great Mortality to read about the Great Mortality-- not about Joanna and her lover, beautiful and tragic though they be. These stories are certainly interesting but I still wish they'd been cut; if not cut, at least abridged.
I see that other reviews have already mentioned his penchant for melodrama and repetition. Personally I didn't mind the repetition so much; I felt that the statistics he offered each chapter were relevant and added to the picture. As for the former, there's a thin line between humanizing the distant past and making a charicature of very real suffering. Now, I doubt I myself could have walked the line as well as Kelly does, but it's worth mentioning that there were several instances in which I had to wonder: Did you keep this paragraph because it's necessary, or because you relish your own creative grasp of the macabre?
Nevertheless, this was an absolutely fantastic read. I borrowed this book from a family friend, but I'll probably buy a copy for myself soon so that I can return to it whenever I want. Definitely recommend!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, and Antisemitism
Moderate: Vomit