PODCAST · arts

Doom of London

by Fred M. White

Here are six stories, each one describing a disaster afflicting London, that were popularly serialized during 1903-1904 in Pearson’s Magazine. The tales depict (1) a deep freeze and unprecedented snowfall; (2) a heavy, blinding, paralyzing blanket of fog; (3) a widespread killer virus; (4) a fraudulent scheme causing financial panic; (5) a minor electrical accident in a tunnel that spirals into catastrophe; and (6) most of the city’s water supply, reportedly contaminated with deadly bubonic bacillus, puts the population in great fear of plague. Is the word “doom” in the book's title accurate, or is it just hyperbole? (Lee Smalley)