The Plague has been a subject for literary writings for centuries. Writers from Giovanni Boccaccio to Albert Camus have used plagues and other diseases for dramatic and literary effect. Here's a list of just a few books that use the subject of the Plague.
1. The Decameron (Abridged)
by Giovanni Boccaccio, Peter E. Bondanella (Editor), and Mark Musa (Editor). W.W. Norton and Company. Norton's critical edition offers 21 of the 100 tales from Boccaccio's "Decameron." Also find critical interpretations from Ugo Foscolo, Francesco De Sanctis, Erich Auerbach, Aldo D. Scaglione, Wayne Booth, Tzvetan Todorov, Robert J. Clements, and Marga Cottino-Jones.2. Journal of the Plague Year
by Daniel Defoe and Paula Backsheider (Editor). W.W. Norton and Company. From the publisher: "The shocking immediacy of Daniel Defoe's description of a plague-racked city makes it one of the most convincing accounts of the Great Plague of 1665 ever written." The book is both fictional and historical in nature.
3. Plague
by Albert Camus, Erroll McDonald (Editor), and Stuart Gilbert (Translator). Random House. From the publisher: "A haunting tale of human resilience in the face of unrelieved horror, Camus' novel about a bubonic plague ravaging the people of a North African coastal town is a classic."4. The Betrothed
by Alessandro Manzoni. Viking Penguin. Published in 1827, "Betrothed" is the first modern Italian novel. It's the tale of two lovers in Lombardy, as they struggle with famine and plague.5. Last Man
Mary Shelley Morton D. Paley (Editor). Oxford University Press. Mary Shelley wrote more books than just "Frankenstein." In 1824, she wrote "Last Man," a novel in which wars and plague are killing off the world's population.6. The Decameron (Oxford World's Classics)
Giovanni Boccaccio, Jonathan Usher (Editor), and Guideo Waldman (Translator). Oxford World's Classics. From the publisher: "'The Decameron' (c.1351) is an entertaining series of one hundred stories written in the wake of the Black Death. The stories are told in a country villa outside the city of Florence by ten young noble men and women who are seeking to escape the ravages of the plague."7. In the Wake of the Plague
by Norman F. Cantor. HarperCollins Publishers. Norman Cantor takes a look at the myths and legends that came out of the brutal reality of the Black Death.8. Fictions of Disease in Early Modern England
by Margaret Healy. Palgrave. From the publisher: "Ranging from the Reformation through the English Civil War, this original approach opens an important new window of understanding onto the period's disease-impregnated literature, including works by Shakespeare, Milton, Heywood, Dekker and others."9. Politics, Plague, and Shakespeare's Theatre
by J. Leeds Barroll. Cornell University Press. The author examines "the dating and performance of Shakespeare's playsfrom 1603 to 1613. The plague, together with poor theatre companies, and other factors "limited opportunities."10. To Blight with Plague
by Barbara Fass Leavy. New York University. From publisher: "Leavy investigates such works as 'A JournaI of the Plague Year' by Daniel Defoe; 'The Pardoner's Tale' by Geoffrey Chaucer; the 'Decameron' by Giovanni Boccaccio; 'The Masque of the Red Death' and other tales by Edgar Allan Poe; 'Ghosts' and 'An Enemy of the People' by Henrik Ibsen; along with other classic works.