Last semester I embarked upon a discovery of Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year, with some dragging of my feet.

What I discovered turned my reluctance into exuberance as I fell in love with Eighteenth Century London. You may wonder how I could feel exuberance reading a text about the death of a third of the population from a dreaded disease prior to an understanding of epidemiology; it was with the help of the internet! As I read A Journal of the Plague Year, I would look up the street names in Wikipedia.com. In this way, I was better able to imagine London 1665 from the street perspective that Defoe’s narrator writes. A whole new world unfolded for me. I invite you, too, to embark upon a literary adventure with your book of choice.

If you are interested in London, I found a wonderful website to share with you. I am giving the link to A Journal of the Plague Year, however you can search for any many texts set in London on the main page:
http://www.londonfictions.com/daniel-defoe-a-journal-of-the-plague-year.html

Enjoy!

Crystal Veronie