Suffering in Paradise

Suffering in Paradise, volume 1, by Rebecca Totaro offers a scholarly examination of how the bubonic plague influenced English literary studies between 1500 and the mid-eighteenth century. This academic work explores how plague accounts shaped human understandings of the body, nature, and religious faith. By analyzing how early modern writers navigated the parameters of life during times of crisis, Totaro investigates the tension between hope and despair within various imaginary realms.

This study of plague and literature features significant works including Thomas More’s Utopia, William Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens, and Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist. The text also includes analyses of Francis Bacon’s The New Atlantis, Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World, and John Milton’s Paradise Lost. These literary examples provide cohesive English perspectives on the era. Suffering in Paradise serves as a detailed resource for those researching the intersection of historical disease and early modern English literature.