London & Loimographia: An Account of the Great London Plague in the Year 1665
My Fiftieth book for ljbookbingo is London: A Travel Guide Through Time by Dr. Matthew Green for #44 A Travel Guide, card found here:
I was given this book as a gift a couple of years ago and I finally got around to reading it. It was such a novel take on a city's history. Basically you are like a time traveler who goes to various points in London's history and then the author takes you on a walking tour and shows you how London used to be. Dr. Green makes six stops through London's past from Medieval times all the way through the fifties with stops in Shakespeare's time and a London ravaged by the plague. The author really has done his research and it shows. He gives an in-depth look at each time period and doesn't sugarcoat anything, so there are some very candid descriptions of horrific events. Overall it was a fairly interesting read and kept my attention easily.
My Fifty-First book for ljbookbingo is Loimographia: An Account of the Great London Plague in the Year 1665 by William Boghurst for #51 A Book Outside Your Comfort Zone, card found here:
I first heard about this book and William Boghurst in the book London: A Travel Guide Through Time by Dr. Matthew Green. I love to read first person accounts of historical events although I am squeamish when it comes to graphic medical accounts so it was a bit outside my comfort zone. Eventually I found it on the Archive website and got to reading. I am not going to lie when I read the title I was really hoping it would be the doctor's written account of his day to day life while treating patients during the plague. That is not what this is at all, basically this is his treatise on how to help those who get the plague, various poultices and medicines you can make to help those in need. So it has vivid and very detailed lists of symptoms and how to treat and in some cases cure patients afflicted.
Although there are some interesting tidbits buried within. Like how Boghurst was not shy about mentioning (repeatedly) how cowardly and without mercy were the doctors who fled at the first sign of the plague and how they dishonored their whole profession. He was really fired up about those who abandoned their patients in their time of need. He was also against bleeding, or forcing the victims to vomit as a way to cure them although many of his contemporaries recommended it. He believed it just made the affected sicker. Also you could tell he really cared about the people he treated and this book was a way for him to impart his knowledge for future doctors who may have to deal with plague outbreaks. All in all even though it was not what I thought it was I am not sorry I read it.
This entry was originally posted at https://under-the-silk-tree.dreamwidth.org/69500.html
I was given this book as a gift a couple of years ago and I finally got around to reading it. It was such a novel take on a city's history. Basically you are like a time traveler who goes to various points in London's history and then the author takes you on a walking tour and shows you how London used to be. Dr. Green makes six stops through London's past from Medieval times all the way through the fifties with stops in Shakespeare's time and a London ravaged by the plague. The author really has done his research and it shows. He gives an in-depth look at each time period and doesn't sugarcoat anything, so there are some very candid descriptions of horrific events. Overall it was a fairly interesting read and kept my attention easily.
My Fifty-First book for ljbookbingo is Loimographia: An Account of the Great London Plague in the Year 1665 by William Boghurst for #51 A Book Outside Your Comfort Zone, card found here:
I first heard about this book and William Boghurst in the book London: A Travel Guide Through Time by Dr. Matthew Green. I love to read first person accounts of historical events although I am squeamish when it comes to graphic medical accounts so it was a bit outside my comfort zone. Eventually I found it on the Archive website and got to reading. I am not going to lie when I read the title I was really hoping it would be the doctor's written account of his day to day life while treating patients during the plague. That is not what this is at all, basically this is his treatise on how to help those who get the plague, various poultices and medicines you can make to help those in need. So it has vivid and very detailed lists of symptoms and how to treat and in some cases cure patients afflicted.
Although there are some interesting tidbits buried within. Like how Boghurst was not shy about mentioning (repeatedly) how cowardly and without mercy were the doctors who fled at the first sign of the plague and how they dishonored their whole profession. He was really fired up about those who abandoned their patients in their time of need. He was also against bleeding, or forcing the victims to vomit as a way to cure them although many of his contemporaries recommended it. He believed it just made the affected sicker. Also you could tell he really cared about the people he treated and this book was a way for him to impart his knowledge for future doctors who may have to deal with plague outbreaks. All in all even though it was not what I thought it was I am not sorry I read it.
This entry was originally posted at https://under-the-silk-tree.dreamwidth.org/69500.html