A Visitation of the Plague Author:Daniel Defoe In the months leading up to the outbreak of the Great Plague of 1665, panic spread over the city of London. Trapped by poverty, a gullible populace became prey to an army of astrologers, charlatans, and quack doctors who offered false promises of hope in the face of impending horror. A Journal of the Plague Year,... more »rong> from which this extract is taken, is Daniel Defoe's vivid, imaginative reconstruction of the Great Plague of London. The tears and lamentations of a city under siege, this book is regarded as one of the first great English novels. « less