Plagues, Pandemics and Viruses: From the Plague of Athens to COVID-19.

Description: Introduces medical, historical, sociological, and literary aspects of various infectious human diseases, including addiction, illustrated with sidebar facts, literary examples, and photographs and reproductions. A chapter on "The Black Death" includes a brief life of Chaucer--with a photograph of his statue (and bas-relief of pilgrims on its plinth) in Canterbury, by Sam Holland and Lynne O’Dowd, erected in 2016--and commentary on CT, especially the Pardoner and his Tale.