Is it dystopian fiction or narrative nonfiction? Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year has baffled publishers and librarians since it's first appearance in March 1722. It is one man's account of events during what until recently was the last Great Plague of London in 1665. Defoe published the book under the initials "H.F.," which likely refer to his uncle, Henry Foe, who lived in Whitechapel during the plague. Daniel Defoe himself was five years old in 1665. Although the prevailing school of thought has been to classify the book as fiction, it is evident that Defoe conducted considerable research for the book, even including tables of casualties and identifying specific streets and even houses that do, in fact, exist. Too, the book is far more detailed than the account in the diary of Samuel Pepys, to which it is often compared and which, of course, is classified as nonfiction.

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