This novel is set in the latter half of the 1400s in London during the reign of Henry VII, who has a problem. Several problems, in fact. His subjects are unhappy with their tax burden, the nobles are unhappy with his leadership, and his claim to the throne is shaky at best. Now he faces the biggest threat to his rule. An epidemic is sweeping England, and it is spread by sexual intercourse: The Pockes, or The Great Pockes, as it is soon known. It falls to Robert Bacon, a young barber-surgeon, to trace the origin of the disease and find a cure. But he reckons without the opposition of Henry’s faction-riven, self-seeking, agenda-driven government – and the hostility of the Church, and the physicians, alchemists, and soothsayers who make up the English medical profession.
An online comment: "A really fascinating account of how a pandemic infection spread across the known world and the reactions to it by statesmen, politicians, and the church."
Word of the Day
pockes ~ this epidemic was caused by a disease with pustules, from what I've been able to understand by googling. Pustules are small, inflamed, pus-filled, blister-like sores or lesions on the skin.
1 comment:
Interesting. As I read your description I thought how difficult it must be to track down the origin and course of a pandemic and how the heck did they do it before modern technology!
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