Plague/pandemic-related literature

[Diable Rouge]

Of course, the original classic of the genre is Boccaccio's Decameron - who would have thought that a tale of mediaeval Tuscans self-isolating against a rampant plague would suddenly become relevant in the 21st century? Defoe wrote Journal of a Plague Year, purportedly based on his own personal memories, though he was only five when the outbreak occurred, and even cholera has made its impact on global literature, courtesy of Garcia Marquez. La Peste may ostensibly portray a community's response to a disease, but in practice proves more allegorical to Algerian responses to occupation.

[jameswba]

I've been thinking recently that I would like to read La Peste again. We studied it for French A'level - I'd probably need to read it an English translation this time round though.

It can be read as an allegory, but doesn't have to be, at least as I remember it.

[ursus arctos]

I'd agree with that.

Nothing comes close to the Decameron in my view.

[pebblethefish]

Wrong thread. Although I did like The Stand

[Patrick Thistle]

Lots of science fiction revolving around such things. The Girl With All the Gifts is really good, although that's all caused by a fungus so maybe more a pestilence than a plague?

[Diable Rouge]

All's good for the sake of a more expansive thread - the most recent Dan Brown potboiler also involved a water-borne pandemic.

[Hot Orange]

As Jah mentioned in the main CV thread, Station Eleven is very good.

[Patrick Thistle]

I read a book years ago called "After the Fire" which was the aftermath of a virulent flu like plague that wiped out a huge percentage of the population. It really stuck with me although if I read it again I would probably think it was rubbish. In that book it was a pathogen that escaped from a germ warfare lab.

[Diable Rouge]

Sounds like a rip-off of The Andromeda Strain.

[Sam]

I read The Last Man a few years ago, because I was curious to see how Mary Shelley had followed up Frankenstein, and also why it's so little heard of these days. Turns out a novel like Frankenstein isn't easy to follow up, and there's a pretty good reason The Last Man isn't considered a classic. Although it was good in parts and quite interesting as an exercise.

[Jah Womble]

As Jah mentioned in the main CV thread, Station Eleven is very good.

It is very good indeed - it somehow manages to make the concept of the great outdoors seem incredibly claustrophobic.

If I were you, I'd not perhaps start reading it now, however.

[Balderdasha]

Shipwrecks by Akira Yoshimura is a fantastic book. It's about a coastal village in medieval Japan. Not all about plague, but does feature a memorable outbreak of smallpox.

[Various Artist]

I read The Last Man a few years ago, because I was curious to see how Mary Shelley had followed up Frankenstein, and also why it's so little heard of these days. Turns out a novel like Frankenstein isn't easy to follow up, and there's a pretty good reason The Last Man isn't considered a classic. Although it was good in parts and quite interesting as an exercise.

Richard Matheson's I Am Legend is set in the aftermath of a plague that has left one man alone when everyone else seems to have been infected and left in a quasi-vampiric state.

Association of thoughts: it's been filmed three times, as The Last Man On Earth, The Omega Man and, erm, I Am Legend, and there was of course a recent though not directly related The Last Man On Earth TV series. That's set in late 2020 after a virus has wiped out most life on earth...

[Hot Orange]

I dug out my copy of La Peste - not touched since my university days hundreds of years ago - but Mrs HO has given me something else that she insists I read first because she needs to return it to the library soon.

[Hot Orange]

It is very good indeed - it somehow manages to make the concept of the great outdoors seem incredibly claustrophobic.

If I were you, I'd not perhaps start reading it now, however.

I can't stop thinking about the self-isolating plane.