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Book Reviews of The Great Mortality : An Intimate History of the Black Death, The Most Devastating Plague of All Time

The Great Mortality : An Intimate History of the Black Death, The Most Devastating Plague of All Time
The Great Mortality An Intimate History of the Black Death The Most Devastating Plague of All Time
Author: John Kelly
ISBN-13: 9780060006921
ISBN-10: 0060006927
Publication Date: 2/1/2005
Pages: 384
Rating:
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 22

3.8 stars, based on 22 ratings
Publisher: HarperCollins
Book Type: Hardcover
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

2 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

reviewed The Great Mortality : An Intimate History of the Black Death, The Most Devastating Plague of All Time on
Helpful Score: 2
Very interesting and absorbing book, the author talks of the plague like it was an invading army and how it sweeps over the land. Also interesting are the glimpses into the daily lives of people in Europe during the black plague.
reviewed The Great Mortality : An Intimate History of the Black Death, The Most Devastating Plague of All Time on + 52 more book reviews
"In October 1347, at about the start of the month, twelve Genoese galleys put in to the port of Messina [Sicily]."

"So begins, in almost fairy-tale fashion, a contemporary account of the worst natural disaster in European history-what we call the Black Death, and what the generation who lived through it called 'la moria grandissima': 'the great mortality.' The medieval plague, however, was more than just a European catastrophe. From the bustling ports along the China Sea to the fishing villages of coastal Greenland, almost no area of Eurasia escaped the wrath of the medieval pestilence. And along with people died dogs, cats, chickens, sheep, cattle, and camels. For a brief moment in the middle of the fourteenth century, the words of Genesis 7:21 seemed about to be realized: 'All flesh died that moved upon the earth.'"