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A CITY TORN APART BY MADNESS, FEAR, SAVAGERY AND DISILLUSION...
300 years after the Black Death, London is once again an isolated, panic-stricken city of the dying and the dead...in the grip of a fearsome plague that has killed 10000 people by the third week of August.
The boffins are baffled. The PM returns from his grouse moors...
Theatres and cinemas close; the football pools continue by ballot...
Afraid of infection, men stop making love to their wives. Out-of-work prostitutes turn to collecting corpses....
BUT MOST EXTRAORDINARY OF ALL IS WHAT HAPPENS TO JOE AND POLLY, AN ORDINARY MARRIED COUPLE, DURING THAT APOCALYPTIC SUMMER OF CLEAR BLUE SKIES AND ROTTING FLESH
300 years after the Black Death, London is once again an isolated, panic-stricken city of the dying and the dead...in the grip of a fearsome plague that has killed 10000 people by the third week of August.
The boffins are baffled. The PM returns from his grouse moors...
Theatres and cinemas close; the football pools continue by ballot...
Afraid of infection, men stop making love to their wives. Out-of-work prostitutes turn to collecting corpses....
BUT MOST EXTRAORDINARY OF ALL IS WHAT HAPPENS TO JOE AND POLLY, AN ORDINARY MARRIED COUPLE, DURING THAT APOCALYPTIC SUMMER OF CLEAR BLUE SKIES AND ROTTING FLESH
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1965
28 people want to read
About the author
Penelope Gilliatt
37 books5 followersBrilliant English short story writer, novelist, critic and screenwriter, Penelope Gilliatt came to represent some of the best of the second generation writing at the New Yorker magazine.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 24, 2014
This book really stunk.
I bought it and read it on vacation due to a recommendation from an author on Band of Thebes best LGBT books of 2012 list. I generally like older gay themed books, I like British fiction, and this recommendation sealed the deal.
The plot goes nowhere. You know everything except the gay parts by reading the book jacket. There's a plague but we never see it, never care, it's more the backdrop for the gay scandal then a story on it's own.
The book is pre-Stonewall, pre-feminism, and really embodies the worst of that period. The woman becomes hysterical when the man isn't around. She needs tranquilizers to get through the day. There must have been a lot of tranquilizers around for all these women going to pieces. One day the husband comes home and sees the wife making a chart. He asks if it's something to do with the baby. The wife replies that no, she's crossing off the hours that she has to spend alone until he gets home. Sigh.
Pre-Stonewall, all the gay characters die.
The only surprising thing in the book was the gumption and back-talk of the woman when her husband's motivation was being questioned. Where was any of this during the fainting spells and sedatives? It was like a different person.
The story goes nowhere, you won't care about the people, it gives no insight into the period, just poor.
Avoid.
I bought it and read it on vacation due to a recommendation from an author on Band of Thebes best LGBT books of 2012 list. I generally like older gay themed books, I like British fiction, and this recommendation sealed the deal.
The plot goes nowhere. You know everything except the gay parts by reading the book jacket. There's a plague but we never see it, never care, it's more the backdrop for the gay scandal then a story on it's own.
The book is pre-Stonewall, pre-feminism, and really embodies the worst of that period. The woman becomes hysterical when the man isn't around. She needs tranquilizers to get through the day. There must have been a lot of tranquilizers around for all these women going to pieces. One day the husband comes home and sees the wife making a chart. He asks if it's something to do with the baby. The wife replies that no, she's crossing off the hours that she has to spend alone until he gets home. Sigh.
Pre-Stonewall, all the gay characters die.
The only surprising thing in the book was the gumption and back-talk of the woman when her husband's motivation was being questioned. Where was any of this during the fainting spells and sedatives? It was like a different person.
The story goes nowhere, you won't care about the people, it gives no insight into the period, just poor.
Avoid.
May 28, 2022
I picked this up at an estate sale last year because of its premise…a supposed deadly plague, people on lockdown etc…the story itself wasn’t great but the connections to 2019 were eerily on point especially as it was written in the 1960’s. I’d recommend it for that only. Otherwise, not great.
June 30, 2020
Topical, being about an epidemic that hits London, but not particularly well written.
December 21, 2021
Just plain boring. It's supposed to be about a deadly epidemic but mostly about classism, racism and homophobia, all handled terribly.
April 19, 2020
An odd but engaging blend of melodrama and satire. Unfortunately, though Gilliatt could clearly write very well, the plot felt too rushed to be successful.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews