The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time
By: John Kelly / Narrated By: Matthew Lloyd Davies
Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
Yeh, yeh, yeh: It sometimes gets a bit repetitive, but Oh. My. GOD!!! One of the best books on the Plague out there
One thing you’ll find out about author John Kelly right quick: The man dearly loves a tangent. No, like, seriously. This book, The Great Mortality, aaaaaactually began as he thought he might write about the novel plagues the world has seen lately and might see in the future: Death Death Death. So he thought he’d give historical plagues a Look-See, brush up on what all they were like to give himself a bit of a foundational point.
Turns out The Great Mortality of the the 1300s just captivated him; more to the point? It was the original material he was turning up in his research, the words of the contemporaries the world over that completely and totally spoke to him. And thus, this book, his greatest tangent, came to be.
One other reviewer couldn’t STAND how Kelly starts a subject, warms to it, then BANG, it’s off to another part of the world to say what all happened over there at the time. Soooo, yes, many tangents of that ilk. And since it’s all Death Death Death, it can kinda sorta, over the span of nearly 13 hours, start sounding a bit repetitive. Nope, it ain’t the same type o’ plague each and every time, but how many buboes in the groin does one really need to hear about?
Me? I’ll respond with: PLENTY! Tell me about them all, whether they’re in China, or in Italy, or in France, or plowing through England, gimme ‘em all. Cuz I’m kinda sorta fascinated with the Plague…
Besides which, Kelly’s work is oh so much more than just a chronicle of a disease. The man, research-devotee, gives us what life was like, exactly, for those living in the regions affected. He throws in soooo much about what was happening in the world prior to the Plague, the climate woes, wars and strife, population growth outrunning resources at the time, and oooooh a grand old look at hygiene practices at the time. Uhm, or the lack thereof. So while you’re getting your horror on, you’re also getting stories of who all it happened to, and you wind up with a book that is at turns touching, at turns terrifying, sometimes humorous (Okay, a LOT humorous—sly devil), always personal. There’s no way to listen to this book and NOT feel for the contemporaries.
About the only time I zoned out was after the umpteenth story about Jews being scapegoated and massacred—Not that it wasn’t horrifying or distressing, it’s just that Kelly feels compelled to tell us how it happened each and every time in each and every place. Rounding Jews up and setting them on fire? Bludgeoning them to death? It’s all fear fear fear, and kinda reminded me of the scapegoating that’s happening now. We always need someone to blame; and I dunno if it’s just so that we feel we have SOME control over SOMEthing, or what? But still, after hearing about it so very many times before, it lost quite a bit of its oomph by the time he decides to go full-bore on and really tell us what happened in yet another vicinity.
Still, I think that says more about my lack of sensitivity than it does about any perceived lack of skill on Kelly’s part. Plus, Matthew Lloyd Davies, a favorite of mine, does his usual bang-up job with narration, conveying terror all along, all whilst managing Kelly’s keen witticisms without coming off as a jerk (That would be me…). Davies narrates with warmth, with enthusiasm, with just the right amount of dolefulness without it all coming off as a bummer. Rather we’re entertained even as we’re enlightened. His ability to relay the original sources as though he IS them makes us feel we ARE them also. We are the poor blighter who’s been rained on for months, who’s seen food crops destroyed, who’s suffered famine, all before going on to watch townsfolk and much-loved family members get ill, sicken, die, then be stacked like only so much cordwood on the side of the road.
If you’ve a mind to just pass off some of the repetition of a plague that destroys what it touches, country by country, you’re in for a solidly good time. It’s fairly graphic, doesn’t pull a lot of punches, but it’s vastly engaging.
And, it turns out? I’m a total sucker for a few good tangents…!
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.