content: This is a novel worth reading, it's not a 'You've GOT to read this' book but it does give a few hours of pleasure and increases your knowledge on about the 17th Century plague. Brooks is a fine wordsmith and the narrative flows easily, pictures of what you are reading about form easily in the mind and it is a pleasure to take up where you have left off. For all that I thought some of the ideas, eg the celibacy one was rather extreme and the exotic ending far too stretched for the times.