The wonderful Miss Shade has been posting excerpts from John Kelly's The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time on her blog Materies Morbi, and I've been so intrigued that I simply had to buy the book and get in on the action:
The pestilence's magisterial pace also gave Parisans ample time to contemplate the meaning of love and duty and honor in a time of plague. What would they do if a loved one was afflicted? What would the loved one do if they were afflicted? The fear of contagion makes the psychology of plague different from the psychology of war. In plague, fear acts as a solvent on human relationships; it makes everyone an enemy and everyone an isolate. In plague every man becomes an island -- a small, haunted island of suspicion, fear, and despair. (page 177)
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