This fascinating reconstruction of life in plague times presents the personal experiences of a wide range of individuals, from historical notables Samuel Pepys and Isaac Newton, through the squires and masters of the university colleges, to the common folk who tilled the land and plied their trades. Evelyn Lord shines a light on the many different ways people did, or didn't, face catastrophe: some fled, others fearfully hid their symptoms; some stayed to grieve for their family members while other were boarded up in their infected houses to await their fate. Cambridge's seventeenth-century inhabitants are here revealed as having been as often stoically defiant as they were terrified and desperate. Scouring local records and many other often overlooked sources, Lord fleshes out an intimate and unexpected re-creation of everyday life before, during and after the plague, which brings home to today's reader the horror and humanity of facing the pestilence 350 years ago.

Contains primary source material.