Doomed Hometown: Because the novel was written in the 1720s, this is the case for London.Depopulation Bomb: The plague outbreak killed around 100,000 people, which still pales in comparison to the overall death toll from the Black Death.Crapsack World: London already had shades of this before early on.Britain Is Only London: Set in London and the narrator refuses to leave the city, enforcing this trope.The Black Death: The novel is an account of a (fictional) man living through a (very real) outbreak of bubonic plague that struck London in 1665.
Based on a True Story: It's debatable to what extent, which parts (if any) are entirely fictional and which parts (if any) are entirely accurate.Apocalyptic Log: One of the earliest examples in fiction.There are also a few musings about human nature, piety and some *ahem* slightly uncomfortable speculation about the nature of the plague itself.Ī Journal of the Plague Year contains the following tropes: He also includes a more general analysis of the effects of the plague on various institutions such as the Church, trade and the government of the city, which by the time Defoe was writing had all radically changed. The narrator describes in vivid detail the sufferings of the people of London during the epidemic, ranging from simply recounting the bills of deaths with ominously rising numbers of fatalities from week to week, to several in depth vignettes about how certain groups or individuals weathered the plague - or otherwise. To what extent people believed this narrative frame is debatable. It was published as "written by a Citizen" rather than Defoe, and framed as an anonymous autobiography rather than a work of fiction. There are also similarities between certain passages of the Journal and Samuel Pepys' diary - suggested to be because Defoe was friends with someone who had worked for Pepys while he was writing the diary. It's not Defoe's journal (he was a small child at the time), although it might be based on his uncle's stories. The book describes the experiences of a man living in London during the the Great Plague of London in 1665. A casement violently opened just above my head, and a Woman gave three frightful screeches, then cried "Oh! Death, death, death!Īn historical novel by Daniel Defoe, published in 1722.
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