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How does A Journal of the Plague Year combine history and fiction?
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Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe, engraving by M. Van der Gucht, after a portrait by J. Taverner, first half of the 18th century.
A Journal of the Plague Year (1722) is a masterful blend of historical reconstruction and fictional narrative. While it recounts the Great Plague of London of 1665, Daniel Defoe had no direct experience of the event.12
Defoe achieved this synthesis through several techniques:
- Fictional Persona: The book is narrated by "H.F.," a character presented as an eyewitness to the devastation.1
- Journalistic Style: Defoe adopted a tone of plain, matter-of-fact reportage, using flat understatement to lend the narrative an air of historical authenticity.23
- Careful Contrivance: Despite its appearance as a hurried or unshaped account, the work is the product of meticulous preparation and selective ordering.2
- Vivid Detail: By focusing on concrete, vivid details, Defoe created a sense of verisimilitude that draws the reader into a specific, circumscribed world.3
Ultimately, the book functions as a fictional reconstruction that uses the novelist’s craft to present historical subject matter with the immediacy and force of a firsthand record.2