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The Black Death: A Personal History

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The Black Death continues to fascinate us, even though it took its great toll on Europe in the fourteenth century. There have been scores of books about it. One of the world's experts on the plague, John Hatcher, is a professor at the University of Cambridge. He has written a great deal about medieval history and about the Black Death in particular, but has taken a completely new method in _The Black Death: A Personal History_ (Da Capo Press). There are first person accounts of the plague in Boccaccio and Petrarch, and there are plenty of records about how the plague raged through Britain, but there isn't a comparable story-telling description for Britain. Until now, for Hatcher has written one. He has chosen the locale of Walsham le Willows, a Suffolk town that has many good records for the years of the plague, but he explains, "Even in the best documented of places, the sources surviving from the fourteenth century are silent, or severely deficient, on most of the issues that were central to the lives of the villagers. There are no diaries, reminiscences, or correspondence, and no accounts of what people believed or how they spent their days." He feels, however, that "... this does not mean that historians should give up and leave the telling of it to novelists, dramatists, and filmmakers."

The result is a book for which, Hatcher says, "I have had to invent situations and dialogue and employ techniques reminiscent of docudrama." He has had also to invent characters, such as Master John, the parish priest of Walsham. The result is not really a historical novel; there is little character development or plot. As befits the work of a historian, this is more of a history, as if there were a reporter there at the time to interview characters and describe what was going on. Much centers on the idea that God was punishing those other villages, but Master John taught that he would spare those in Walsham who showed that they deserved mercy by acts of confession and public and private abasement. There was no way to understand the disease except as a message and punishment from God, but as the illness worked its way into the land, there were many who questioned how God could be treating them in this way. Sinless infants fell to it, as did the devout, as did many a sincere priest. Also mystifying was that the great pestilence God had wrought for the sins of the people led to no improvement of their behavior or their lot in any social stratum. In Walsham, as in other areas, the death toll was around 50%, and the loss of population created economic and social chaos. Hatcher vividly describes the frustrations of the likes of the lordly master of Walsham's High Hall, who found that those who had toiled for the manor for centuries now discovered themselves a scarce resource so that they could demand high wages. The plague also raised the ire of the lords and the clergy when the survivors, widows, and widowers quickly took up new partners, often cohabiting without benefit of marriage. Such behavior was not only sinful, it robbed officials of marriage fees due to the manor.

Hatcher's experiment in telling a social history using fiction based on a historical foundation is a success. He has not only told about what the villagers were going through during the terror, but has cleverly called upon other sources to come in and give background information. For instance, Master John rides to the town of Bury St. Edmunds to speak at the abbey there with his friend the infirmarer, the medical authority for the monks. He thus gets an earful of how physicians at the time explained the disease, although they had no more effect against it than religious authorities. In another section, a carter regales the crowd at Alice Pye's alehouse with a description of the appearance and behavior of a procession of flagellants he has seen, come to London from across the channel to whip themselves bloody so that the plague would be cast out of the land. The details provided here give an unforgettable picture of a society thrown into chaos by microbes, and it is not too far a stretch to think that we might in our own way go through the same sorts of responses to the chaos when the new SARS or Ebola comes for us.

Again I pay the price of failing to adequately preview a book before ordering it. I knew I was in trouble halfway through the preface, when the author explained the need to mix fact and fiction to add a "more vivid dimension" to the Black Death. He even describes the book as a "docudrama."

I couldn't take anymore after 150 pages. The writing is mediocre, the pacing is ponderous, repetition is rampant, and the "fiction" insipid and spiritless without a hint of "drama."

You learn some interesting things about the stifling predominance of Christianity and other aspects of everyday life in rural, medieval England, but that is little consolation for the sheer effort of forcing yourself to turn the page.

John Hatcher has taken us back to the horrendous bubonic plague of 1348-49 as if he possessed his own personal time machine. Working carefully with existing parish and town records for Walsham, in a rural area northeast of London, Hatcher brings the people of the English countryside of the 14th Century vividly to life.
Fictionalizing where necessary, but also utilizing the unusually detailed historic records for Walsham, Hatcher uses the selfless parish priest Master John as a human pivot around which his story turns. Master John works tirelessly day and night at his pastoral duties of hearing final confessions and conducting last rites as lords and ladies of the manor, merchants, townspeople, and peasants alike fall victim to the horrible Black Death which killed half the people of Walsham in a period of about two months in the spring of 1349, during its relentless march across most of Europe.
In the days after the plague has subsided in Walsham, Hatcher relates how the peasants who survived the Black Death begin to take advantage of their scarcity by demanding much higher wages to work in the landlords' fields. He also tells how the surviving lords and ladies, or their surviving heirs, struggle to force the peasants to work for the lower wages they had accepted before -- to return things to the way they used to be. But the Black Death caused societal changes that were never reversed.
Hatcher turns dead names from the 14th Century into real people in this unique history-cum-historic fiction work. It's well worth the read.

"Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence ... He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust: His truth shall be thy sword and buckler ... Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day ... Nor for the pestilence that walketh in the darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday ... A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come on nigh thee." - From Psalm 91, the comfort of Master John, as quoted in THE BLACK DEATH

With THE BLACK DEATH, author John Hatcher has made an intelligent and clever approach at describing what it was perhaps like for the Average John Q Citizen to experience the pandemic outbreak of the Black Death, the "plague" caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which came out of Central Asia and peaked in Europe in 1348-50, wiping out 30-60% of the population.

In the Preface, Hatcher explains the conundrum he faced. While he didn't want to compose yet another historical survey of the plague's progress across Europe - so many of such already exist - he also didn't want to create a completely fictional historical novel. Rather, to pen a narrative of the common man's personal experience with the disease - about which encounter there's virtually no contemporary description - John went to the public records as a starting point. In this case, they were the manorial court and accounts roles of the village of Walsham le Willows in west Suffolk, England, which are notably complete for the years in question. From these documents, the author populates the Walsham of his "docudrama" with people that really lived and engaged in the routine (and faithfully recorded) activities of life - marriages, births, deaths, petty crimes, personal legal squabbles, local elections, manorial court sessions, crop harvest yields, goods' prices, etc. - to thus paint a picture of the community's environment from 1345 to 1350, i.e. before, during, and after the Black Death struck in the Spring of 1349. Fictional dialogue between the characters, otherwise kept to a minimum, is inserted to flesh out the narrative and is based on reasonable supposition and what is known of the customs of the time.

Walsham's records have one glaring omission; there is nowhere recorded the name of the village priest. Out of necessity, then, Hatcher introduces his only completely fictional character, John Bradfield ("Master John"), God's shepherd for the parish of St. Mary's Church. As envisioned by the author, John is a learned, compassionate, honest, unworldly, wise, and pious cleric who assiduously cares for the spiritual well-being of his flock to the point, during the worst of the plague, of exhaustion; he becomes the hero of the piece. In that respect, the Walsham of THE BLACK DEATH was lucky indeed.

For those readers living in a western society where the various levels of government refrain from sponsorship of any organized religion, the importance of the Catholic Church to the everyday lives of the English commoners, as depicted in THE BLACK DEATH, may be a revelation. The central government, at this time the monarchy headed by Edward III, played virtually no role in attempts, beyond exhortations to the realm's various bishops to urge the faithful to increased prayer and penance against a background of more sermons, Masses, and powerful indulgences, to explain or protect its subjects from the pestilence as it marched inexorably across mainland Europe towards their island bastion. Master John, then, found himself at the pointy end of the only defense then believed able to potentially deflect God's wrath. The fact that the Church failed - indeed, could not but fail - does not detract from the fact that it tried. For those front-line clerics of the same honesty, competency, and dedication as Master John - and many such certainly existed (and died with the disease) - posthumous honor is due.

From an amateur historian's perspective, the second substantial lesson of the book is the change in the foundation of medieval society, i.e. the relationship of the villeins to their manorial masters, which the depopulation by disease precipitated. The surviving rustics got uppity in their demands for better wages and benefits - something they could pull off because of the resultant labor shortage - and their world was never the same again (much to the distress of the affluent Church and the landed nobility).

The volume includes a 27-page section of bibliography-based Notes and a 16-page collection of photographs of elements of paintings and illustrated manuscripts, all which support the nature of the society and environment which the author means to re-create.

Any casual or serious student of psychology, English history, and/or the effects of a universally devastating disease on societal structure should find THE BLACK DEATH convincing and absolutely fascinating. John Hatcher admirably achieved what he set out to do, and I think his book one of the best I've read all year.

Between 1457 and 1451 something over a third of the population of Europe succumbed to the Black Death, a plague carried by rats from the Middle East to the heart of Western Civilization. The estimated 75 million people who died in the plague was the largest mass death in recorded human history, and an object lesson in what might happen in future pandemics.

We have known about the history of the plague for centuries, but records are sparse on how it affected ordinary people. The value of "The Black Death: A Personal History" is that a renowned medieval historian, John Hatcher, has used the exceptionally detailed records of Walsham, England, to recreate the story of the plague at the local level, and from there to extrapolate how it affected the rest of Europe. He focuses his attention through the eyes and feelings of Master John, a fictional character, but one that might have well existed, who was concerned not just with the spiritual people of the town--his principal concern--but also with their physical well-being. He takes the reader through a death in the town, and the concern for the local inhabitants' salvation to the care for the dying during the Black Death. His literary license in creating characters and scenes is troubling to me, but it helps to bring the reality of the plague to life. The work is especially strong on how medieval society viewed death, the eternal soul, and life after death.

"The Back Death: A Personal History" is a very effective recreation of the experience of the plague in England and an interesting reading experience.

I should have read the 'blurbs' about this book more carefully before ordering it. I rather thought I was getting a study of the Black Death that included some actual personal accounts when instead I got a series of vignettes introduced by some factual material and followed by a fictional account of some made-up characters affected by the plague. The idea to blend fact with fiction was, I suppose, quite a clever one, but it really was not what I wanted and, in truth, not very well executed. The factual material has been produced in greater depth elsewhere and the fictional parts were heavy and wooden. I gave up about half-way through. As a book about the Black death, this one failed in my eyes, but some people may find it interesting just as a glimpse into medieval life.

Perhaps when I read the description of The Black Death and how author John Hatcher had fictionalized the account to give readers a better idea of what was going on in the lives or the residents in a corner of Britain while the Black Death swept across Europe I had an idea that the result would be a non-fiction novel like Capote's In Cold Blood.

Alas, the comparison is not to be made. Hatcher tries to walk such a fine line between holding the interest of the lay public and maintaining his veracity for his academic contemporaries. The result ends up being a bit of a mish-mash ... a luke-warm gruel that tries to be both a history and a compeling human story.

Still, the book is a good place to start for those who want basic information on the Black Death's path from central Asia to the furthest western shores of Europe. Don't be surprised, though, if in the middle of the narrative you find yourself wanting more information about was was happening in the rest of Europe. Hatcher does provide glimpses reported through the eyes of travelers (no doubt the same sort of glimpses and hints the actual residents of Walsham received). And he begins every chapter with several pages of italicized background to give the reader a bit of a more omnipotent view. But taken as a whole, The Black Death is less than the sum of its parts.

I must give Hatcher credit for the courage to try a new way of bringing history to life more than six centuries later, but perhaps he attempted to weave too large of a tapestry on too small of a loom.

Hatcher's "Black Death" is, as the author confesses, his first attempt at not writing a "scientific" book. Whatever Hatcher's qualifications may be, his knowledge and insight of the period can be felt all the time, but unfortunately, there is another feeling as well: that Hatcher should please not make another attempt at writing a novel. As if the introduction was not painful enough, each chapter is preceded by a historic review, so that one can essentially dispense with reading the chapter itself since it contains merely a rehash of the introductiory review.

A very tedious book to read, and only recommended to readers whose interest in the brief period of English history is so overwhelming that they are prepared to accept the agony that one invariably feels on every page.

This book is intended to be a mixture of fact and fiction. Meaning for the most part that the author fills in the gaps of what history doesn't neccesarily say with narrative.

As another reviewer said, this book is horribly repetitious. The author particularly likes to dwell over and over again on how common folk would question God's reasons for why the plague has been brought down on their town. While I can appreciate that this was an all encompassing dilemma at the time, it's brought up over and over again without adding any new substance to the idea and gets irritating. Much of the drama is more just "there" than interesting or compelling. It is also obvious when the author sometimes crams a motherload of factual information into a characters dialogue for the sake of being historical.

That being said, however, the facts themselves and the portrayal of "everyday life" during the plague can be at times interesting. If the uninteresting bits were cut down and the book were 100 or so pages shorter I'd give it a 3 or 3.5 instead of a 2.

Living in the feudal kingdom the people felt secure. As their kingdom flourished the people felt safe. In just a few weeks, however, towns would diminish. In many towns the dead could not be buried. Questions began to arise. How did the plague occur? Who would live? Who would die? By the spring of 1348 the plague infected Europe; and even the physicians were left mystified. How did the disease spread? Was it in the Food, in the air, or was it contracted by a simple touch? The people were being horribly attacked and they did not know why. Some fled, tragically taking the plague with them; while others walled themselves inside the city; still, others tried all kinds of concoctions, but to no avail. The response to this plague was many. Families were deserted. Some individuals partied, while others performed selfless acts of charity, nursing the sick; while others were driven to violence and hatred. They were dying from the inside out and as they smelled their own stench many sought relief from God. While the people prayed and sought God's mercy the children sang nursery rhymes: "Ring around the roses, a pocketful of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall down!"

The Black Death (A Personal History) was written by John Hatcher, 1st edition, 2008. In this book Hatcher combines history and fiction; contingent upon local records and the advice of two leading historians of the period, Mark Bailey and Maryanne Kowaleski, Hatcher focuses on the small village of Walsham le Willows in west Suffolk, and gives a personal account on the lives of the people that were affected by the Black Death. Most of Hatcher's book is based on actual people who lived in Walsham and its region during this era and from there Hatcher gives the history. He explains that he attempts to write history from the inside, giving details of this event so as to draw the reader into the mid-fourteenth century. In this way the reader is able to experience the day to day struggles of these villagers and the tragic effects of the Black Death. From Hatcher's view point the reader is able to experience what the people experienced, so to speak, and in so doing become an eyewitness not only to the horrors of this dreadful disease, but also exposed to the villagers view on God and his judgments; and what they thought about life and death during this era.

The book opens with an introduction to the central character (who is exclusively imaginary) Master John. Master John is a God send. Before his coming, the parish had been sorely neglected and abused. But with the coming of Master John things were set in order. The spiritual needs of the people were administered to; confessionals became a means of teaching and correcting, making sure that the people understood life and its consequences. Thus Master John's focus was on restoration; not only spiritually, but communal. Master John wanted to see the community thrive. With each season (late summer, autumn to winter, Christmas and New Year, spring and early summer, midsummer and autumn, autumn and winter, New Year, Lent and Easter, mid-April to early May, mid May, late May to early June, June, summer, summer and autumn, September to December) a vivid account is given of Master John's ministry to the people. Even though he was physically exhausted, it was not his weak spot. Before this plague had reached Walsham Master John was trying to put everything into perspective. He wanted to see this plague from God's perspective. Up until now Master John had relied upon his faith. He did not fully understand God's purpose in all this, but he was trusting God. But now the plague was smiting Walsham and his flock were challenging him with questions that he could not answer. Doubtful himself at this point Master John continues to encourage his flock. What would be the outcome? Would the people turn to God as Master John had encouraged or would they turn to omens and magic and the superstitions of the day? What kind of people would the town of Walsham be after the Black Death? What would be the outcome of Master John and the flock? Would he stay true to himself and faithful to God?

"The Black Death: A Personal History" gives one an overview of the history and experiences of a people downtrodden by a plague that they neither understood nor found respite. The book is a good read in that it gives the history of a fourteenth century people, who though they are going through a tumultuous time, every day life seems to go on. Though there are many other books and archives that share information on feudalism and peasantry and the people of the day; Hatcher makes the story come alive, and in so doing it becomes not only a personal history but a personal testimony. After reading the book the reader (as is Hatcher's intention) should be encouraged to dig a little deeper to understand and uncover the mystery that left this town and country in such turmoil during the fourteenth century.