Customer Reviews

The Great Fire of London: In That Apocalyptic Year, 1666

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This is a wonderful book. What makes it so good is that Mr. Hanson uses the actual fire as his anchor and then casts his nets in all directions. This is a wise decision, as if all 300+ pages of the book were devoted solely to the pyrotechnics the reader's interest would wane. Instead, Mr. Hanson starts off by telling us about a severe outbreak of the plague that struck London in 1665. We are then given some insight into the apocalyptic thinking of the time, since 1666 was uncomfortably close to the biblical 666. And, since many people suspected Charles II of Catholic sympathies, Papist plots were seen everywhere. So, though the fire probably started by accident, in the middle of the night in the bakery of Thomas Farriner, most people saw the hand of God or the hand of man as being responsible. Mr. Hanson then devotes a generous portion of the book to the mechanics of the fire- how it spread over the course of the next 3 days, helped by a steady and strong wind blowing out of the east. There is some interesting material in this section, as we see both the best and worst of human nature coming to the forefront: The Duke of York's heroic efforts in leading others in an attempt to contain the fire; and on the flip side, how people who had carts for hire charged usurious prices to move furniture and personal possessions out of the path of the fire (some even loaded up the goods and disappeared, stealing the belongings of the unfortunate victims). The book does bog down a bit in this section as Mr. Hanson goes into great detail, day by day, concerning the progress of the fire through various streets and neighborhoods- listing which buildings and churches were destroyed or survived. Only the reader with a really thorough knowledge of London would probably find this to be of much interest. However, Mr. Hanson regains his footing in the closing section as he goes into detail concerning the trial of Robert Hubert- a mentally unbalanced Frenchman who, it appears, lied about starting the fire (for motives which remain unknown). Writing about Hubert allows Mr. Hanson to explore the workings of the criminal justice system- including a particularly interesting, if gruesome, section on the perks of being the public executioner, which included (besides a fairly hefty salary): being able to auction off the nooses used to "dispatch" the condemned; the sale of their shoes and clothing; fees from local taverns for making "personal appearances"; the sale of cadavers to local hospitals; and, especially ghoulish, receiving a special fee from the condemned (or from the family) for agreeing to pull on the legs of the hanging victim, so as to hasten death. Well-written, generally nicely paced, full of fascinating peripheral material, this is an excellent book- though not, as you can see, for the faint of heart!

The Great Fire of London by Neil Hanson traces the progress of the conflagration street by street, building by building on all its fronts. Unfortunately the publishers did not include any useful maps so the reader could follow the progress. This oversight detracts fatally from Hanson's exciting and dramatic narrative.

Hanson does not give a proper examination of the long term effects of the fire. His examination of short terms effects is cursory. The book ends with a discussion of pyromania.

The Great Fire of London is enjoyable (what a complement to give a disaster), but not completely satisfying.

This book recreates the events of this cataclysmic event in a fascinating way. Based on firsthand records of the Fire's survivors, the book offers a range of perspectives and gives graphic detail on the fire itself, including some theories on the origins of the blaze. Read about the days before this terrible event, and the effects on Londoners after. Supplemented with helpful maps and period illustrations, I truly could not put this book down.

Author Neil Hanson has created a decent historical work with his "The Great Fire of London," recreating an event that happened nearly half a millennia ago so vividly that the book reads like a contemporary account. The fire was of great importance in the history of Great Britain's capital, as it essentialy erased medieval London from the map and allowed the modern city to be erected in its place.

Hansen sets the stage very effectively by describing everyday life in the city circa the 1660s. London was just recovering from a plague epidemic when the fire struck, started innocently enoough in a bakery and whipped up by strong winds and the effects of a nearly year-long drought. The descriptions of the fire itself are particularly harrowing and Hansen shows himself to be a master of the details.

The book's one drawback is that the maps that are included are not well-detailed, so that the reader often has to guess where a particular event is taking place. Additionally, Hansen assumes a certain amount of prior knowledge about British History and Georgraphy that might be lost upon those readers not intimately familiar with London or its history. Nevertheless, the book is still a compelling read for those who like a good disaster tale.

Neil Hanson has again written a book that will excite some fans of horrific and exciting history but upset those who want their history a little less fraught with the author's fictional conceits. The Great Fire of London (In That Apocalypitic Year 1666) is a fascinating tale and the book moves along at the same speed as the firestorm itself. The reader will learn more than they may have expected to about fires and the author takes one into the aftermath of this horrific event. The book is all surface but often it shines. The frustrating elements include the author's putting thoughts into the historical personalaties throughout that there is no way of knowing the validity, merely that it fits the author's own perceptions of how somebody should be feeling at that time. For those looking for some historical thrills, this might be the ticket.

This is a history for the nonhistorian. That is not meant as a criticism. It is meant as a selling point. There are not thousands of footnotes, but do you really read those things?

This book should interest historians, people who travel frequently to London and the general reading public who are just curious. It takes us back into the world where death from plague was a daily threat and parents lost child after child. Death was a daily companion. Age 35 was an old man. People married young because they had to. By 40 they would probably be dead--especially women who dropped like flies in childbirth.

Then, one night in a baker's house in Pudding Lane the house caught fire. At first it did not look like much but eventually it consumed virtually the entire old city of London.

Efforts to fight the fire, led by Charles II and his brother James, Duke of York, were unsuccessful. With the primitive water mains broken, the only way was to dynamite houses.

When it was all over, the medieval city was gone to be replaced by ruins. The plague disappeared helped along no doubt by the immolation of the rats. Rebuilding began immediately. We all know (or should) about Sir Christopher Wren building all those churches.

And punishment for the fire? One deranged man, who had nothing to do with it was executed.

I read right through this book and so will you. Enjoy!

To answer the query of a reviewer below, there are maps on pages 61, 77 and 109 showing the progress of the fire. The book also has many contemporary illustrations.

This is an exciting book, revealing just how fair and how foul the human character can reveal itself in times of disaster.

There's a touch of the novel about this book, but in a good way. The author 'fills in' what certain characters were thinking. This is a good thing; it adds reality to the facts of what happened. The book covers the time from the start of the fire to the ending of it, how the people reacted, and he gives a very nice chapter about fires in general, how a fire of this size behaves. Overall, the book seems very historically accurate and brings to life how miserable an event the Great Fire of London must've been.

I always thought that the Great Fire was the reason there was no longer any Plague in London, but the author gives good reason why this is probably not the case.

I enjoy books about Restoration England and this was not a disappointment.

This book was engrossing. The descriptions of not only the fire, but the aftermath and the drought & plague that preceded the fire, were written in such an evocative manner that it was like watching a movie. The use of primary sources interspersed with the narrative was very effective, as the reader was given both up-close and distant perspectives to the tragedies that swarmed London in 1665-66.

Too much novelesque fictional fluff obscuring the facts. A whole paragraph devoted to how someone tosses a loaf of bread is too much. I fell asleep after page 4 and couldn't go on. I want to learn about the fire not read a bedtime story about 17th century England. You can tell the author did a lot of research, it's a shame that he fluffed it up so much with his own fictional image of 17th century London life.