Stephen Basdeo

Pandemic Obsession by (or perhaps edited by would be more appropriate) Richard Basdeo is a nice collection of works that describe, either through actual description or fictional stories, various pandemics and plagues throughout history.

Many of these are short with a few complete, short works included. Basdeo provides enough context for each to help the reader understand the history being described or referenced. Don't expect literary analysis that delves into how someone or something might, for instance, represent the plague. If that were done for each work then there would not be many works included. The purpose of this book is to show how pandemics have influenced and been incorporated into our cultures, through history as well as fiction and poetry.

I had already, in response to our current pandemic, revisited Boccaccio, Poe, Camus, Poe, DeLillo, and a few others. So I wasn't looking for analysis, I was looking for reminders of other works and perhaps finding works I didn't think of as related to a pandemic. Toward that goal, this volume served my purposes very well. For those who might not have been familiar with the amount of influence disease has had on our culture, this will be an eye-opening introduction to a number of major works.

Highly recommended for readers who want either an introduction or a nice collection to refer to. Many readers may well decide to read these works in their entireties, and I would definitely suggest The Decameron.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (meer)

It seems like every era has its writers who, though popular at the time, are forgotten as time passes. Stephen Basdeo presents Victorian England's Best-Selling Author: The Revolutionary Life of G. W. M. Reynolds, one of that era's more unusual cases of being forgotten.

Admittedly forgotten might not be the right word. The initial shuffling of Reynolds to the periphery was far more intentional than accidental, so he was ignored rather than forgotten. As time went by, his name wasn't available to be appreciated or shunned.

This book is loosely a biography but there are limited facts known about his personal life. That does, however, allow for more of Reynolds' own words to be presented (this is as much an anthology as a biography). His ideas and advocacy juxtaposed with the way many think of Victorian society certainly gives the reader some understanding of why he may have been actively "forgotten" shortly after his death. Yet many of his opinion pieces are quite striking in their modernity (which isn't to say that the specifics within them are quite dated).

For those who have studied literature, formally or informally, this book will be a wonderful way to fill a hole in that knowledge you didn't even know you had. For those who enjoy social history his editorials alone will make this a valuable addition to your library. And for those who just like learning about yesteryear's revolutionaries and troublemakers, this offers quite a bit to think about.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (meer)