Plague literature

Never once did I think I would read plague literature under the foolish assumption that such things do not occur in the modern world, which Albert Camus satirizes in his novel The Plague. Here is the exchange between two doctors who are confronting a new and deadly form of bacillus in the port town of Oran, Algeria:

‘Yes, Castel,’ he replied. ‘It’s hardly credible. But everything points to its being plague.’

Castel got up and began walking toward the door.

‘You know,’ the old doctor said, ‘what they’re going to tell us? That it vanished from temperate countries long ago.’

‘”Vanished”? What does that word really mean?’ Rieux shrugged his shoulders.

‘Yes. And don’t forget. Just under twenty years ago, in Paris too. . . .’

‘Right. Let’s hope it won’t prove any worse this time than it did then. But really it’s . . . incredible.’

These medical professionals know better than laypersons that plagues do not vanish, which makes the disbelief in plagues “incredible,” attributable only to the wizardry of modern science and technology.

As we brave the new coronavirus, my instinct is to go behind the headlines and read literature for its sensory vividness, psychological acuity, and philosophical depth — all to bear up under our plague.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• • Holy Scripture: Exodus (chapters 1-18, 32), Psalm 91
  • Sophocles, Oedipus Rex (429 BC)
  • Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron (1313-75)
  • Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year (1722)
  • Mary Shelley, The Last Man (1826)
  • Edgar Allen Poe, A Masque of the Red Death (1842)
  • Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment (1866)
  • Jack London, The Scarlet Plague (1912)
  • Thomas Mann, Death in Venice (1912)
  • Katherine Anne Porter, Pale Horse, Pale Rider (1939)
  • Albert Camus, The Plague (1947)

FURTHER READING

General

• • Jill Lepore, “What Our Contagion Fables Are Really About” (The New Yorker)
  • Orhan Pamuk, “What the Great Pandemic Novels Teach Us” (The New York Times)
  • Eliot A. Cohen, “Our Plague Year” (The Atlantic)
  • Marcel Theroux, “The end of coronavirus: what plague literature tells us about our future (The Guardian)
  • Virginia Heffernan, “The Literature of Plagues Gives Us Words to Live By” (Wired)
  • Thomas E. Keys, “The Plague in Literature” (Bulletin of the Medical Library Association)

Book of Exodus

• • Adam Kirsch, “A Passover Unlike Any Other” (The Wall Street Journal). Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the Jewish holiday that begins next week will be celebrated in new ways — and gain new meanings.

Sophocles, Oedipus Rex 

• • Charles McNulty, “President Trump vs. Oedipus Rex: Leaders reveal themselves in times of plague” (Los Angeles Times)
  • Elizabeth Markovits, “Sophocles in the time of ‘pandemic thinking’” (Times Union)

Giovanni Boccaccio, The Decameron 

• • Stephen M. Metzger, “Reasons for reading The Decameron even after coronavirus is over” (Church Life Journal)
  • André Spicer, “The Decameron – the 14th-century Italian book that shows us how to survive coronavirus” (New Statesman)
  • Paula Findlen, “What would Boccaccio say about COVID-19?” (Boston Review)
  • Millicent Marcus, “Reading the Decameron through the lens of Covid-19” (Yale Review)
  • Michael Sherberg, “Some coronavirus lessons from Boccaccio” (Washington University in St. Louis)

Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year

• • David Roberts, “Coronavirus: Defoe’s account of the Great Plague of 1665 has startling parallels with today” (The Conversation)
  • Sam Jordison, “Defoe’s Plague Year was written in 1722 but speaks clearly to our time” (The Guardian)
  • Eliott Grover, “What Daniel Defoe’s Plague Year Can Teach Us About Coronavirus” (Inside Hook)

Mary Shelley, The Last Man 

• • Eileen Hunt Botting, “Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein, and Then a Pandemic” (New York Times)
  • Alan Coffee, “Mary Shelley foresaw the pandemic — and how we’ve divided into bitter factions” (Washington Post)
  • Olivia Murphy, “Guide to the Classics: Mary Shelley’s The Last Man is a prophecy of life in a global pandemic” (The Conversation)
  • Lisa Vargo, “Mary Shelley’s The Last Man and Covid-19” (Cambridge University Press)

Edgar Allen Poe, A Masque of the Red Death

• • Sean Fitzpatrick, “The Masque of the Coronavirus” (Crisis)
  • Maya Phillips, “The Rich Can’t Side From a Plague. Just Ask Edgar Allan Poe” (Slate)

Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment 

• • David Denby, “The Lockdown Lessons of Crime and Punishment” (The New Yorker)
  • Cynthia Haven, “Dostoevsky’s Dream of a Worldwide Plague” (Stanford University)

Jack London, The Scarlet Plague

• • Michele Augusto Riva, Marta Benedetti, and Giancarlo Cesana, “Pandemic Fear and Literature: Observations from Jack London’s The Scarlet Plague” (Emerging Infectious Disease)

Thomas Mann, Death in Venice

• • Anthony Schneck, “Desire and Disease in Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice” (Los Angeles Review of Books)
  • Siddhartha Deb, “The Pandemic Imagination” (The New Republic)
  • Stephanie Engel, “Death in Venice and America” (The American Prospect)

Katherine Anne Porter, Pale Horse, Pale Rider

• • Michael Agresta, “The Seminal Novel About the 1918 Flu Pandemic Was Written by a Texan” (Texas Monthly)
  • Melanie Benson Taylor, “Katherine Anne Porter’s Pandemic” (Los Angeles Review of Books)
  • Rebecca Onion, “Looking for a Good Pandemic Story to Sooth Your Coronavirus Anxieties? Try Katherine Anne Porter’s Pale Horse, Pale Rider” (Slate)

Albert Camus, The Plague

• • Robert Zaretsky, “Out of a clear blue sky: Camus’s The Plagueand coronavirus” (Times Literary Supplement)
  • Samuel Earle, “How Albert Camus’s The Plague became the defining book of the coronavirus crisis” (New Statesman)
  • Alain de Botton, “Camus on the Coronavirus” (New York Times)
  • Steve Coll, “Camus and the Political Tests of a Pandemic” (The New Yorker)
  • Neil Dhingra, “The Plague and the Pandemic” (The Living Church)
  • Jennifer A. Frey, “Podcast: On Reading The Plague in a Plague” (Sacred and Profane Love)
  • Rod Dreher, The Plague – Book Club 1, 2, 3 (The American Conservative)
  • Siddhartha Deb, “The Pandemic Imagination” (The New Republic)
  • Landon Y. Jones, “Camus’s Plague Foretold Coronavirus” (Wall Street Journal)
  • Matt Winesett, “Camus’s Plague – and Ours ” (National Review)
  • Howard Markel, “The Plague perfectly captures the risk in returning to normal” (NPR)
  • Joe Heim, “High school students read The Plague during pandemic” (The Washington Post)
  • Marcel Theroux, “The end of coronavirus: what plague literature tells us about our future” (The Guardian)
  • Stephen Metcalf, “Reading Albert Camus’ The Plague in the time of coronavirus” (Los Angeles Times)