John Donne in the Time of Covid

This title is printed to order. This book may have been self-published. If so, we cannot guarantee the quality of the content. In the main most books will have gone through the editing process however some may not. We therefore suggest that you be aware of this before ordering this book. If in doubt check either the author or publisher’s details as we are unable to accept any returns unless they are faulty. Please contact us if you have any questions.

In 1623 John Donne, dean of Saint Paul's Cathedral in London, suddenly fell ill of a pestilential illness. He took notes during this near fatal illness and published them as Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions in 1624. It is in the context of devotional literature that this book has formerly been studied. If, however, the work is read with specific attention focused on the dynamics of Donne's psychological responses to a serious illness, it may be seen to be the powerful dramatic presentation of his struggle for emotional and spiritual survival following the disruption of a previously accepted value system. Our population today has experienced many of these feelings in facing illness, isolation, and death during the course of COVID-19. We are all Donne. He gives us a voice from four hundred years in the past.