Bubonic plague

Bubonic plague is an infectious disease that is believed to have caused several epidemics or pandemics throughout history. Bubonic plague is the most common form of plague, and is characterized by swollen, tender, inflamed lymph glands (called buboes); other forms are Septicemic plague, which occurs when plague bacteria multiply in the blood, and Pneumonic plague, which occurs when the lungs are infected.

In literature

• The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio (1350). Takes place in Florence in 1348, during the outbreak of the "Black Death", widely believed to be Bubonic Plague.
• The Plague by Albert Camus (1947). An existentialist novel centered around an outbreak of the plague.
• A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe (1722). A fictional first hand account of the London outbreak of 1665.
• Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (1992). A Hugo award and Nebula award-winning historical science fiction novel, in which a time-traveler inadvertently ends up in the plague-ridden England of 1348.