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

“Powerful, rich with details, moving, humane, and full of important lessons for an age when weapons of mass destruction are loose among us.”—Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb

The Great Plague is one of the most compelling events in human history—even more so now, when the notion of plague has never loomed larger as a contemporary public concern.

The plague that devastated Asia and Europe in the 14th century has been of never-ending interest to both scholars and the general public. Many books on the plague rely on statistics to tell the story: how many people died; how farm output and trade declined. But statistics can’t convey what it was like to sit in Siena or Avignon and hear that a thousand people a day are dying two towns away. Or to have to chose between your own life and your duty to a mortally ill child or spouse. Or to live in a society where the bonds of blood and sentiment and law have lost all meaning, where anyone can murder or rape or plunder anyone else without fear of consequence.

In The Great Mortality, author John Kelly lends an air of immediacy and intimacy to his telling of the journey of the plague as it traveled from the steppes of Russia, across Europe, and into England, killing 75 million people—one third of the known population—before it vanished.

©2024 John Kelly (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers

Detailed research

Such a comprehensive description of the black plague in its history and effect of history.
The reader has the perfect voice for this fascinatingly morbid subject

The Great Mortality

The facts fascinated me most. The long story was interesting and it gave me an excellent background of source documents and personal accounts. Narrator was pleasant as one could be on such an event.

Jackpot!

New favorite! I’ve been interested in this subject since I was a child and I’m in love with this book. Educational and entertaining. Fascinating, addictive, and strangely uplifting, it’s a “no holds barred” dive into one of the most significant times in our human history. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the Black Death! Thank you.

Enjoyable

The information was engaging. the reader was easy to listen to. 5 stars all around.

Good subject

Good information, like that they added the impact on society.But don't listen while busy cause it will seem like it jumps or start on some random topic before going back to the plague

Takes too long to get to salient points

It could be that I have read too many other books on this period (such as Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror), but the first half of this book seems like one long prelude and not that interesting. The chapters on King Edward III onward are better.