
The Dancing Plague
SelfMadeHero (Publisher)
Published on 29. April 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
192 pages
978-1-910593-98-1 (ISBN)
Description
The Dancing Plague tells a true story, from 1518, when hundreds of inhabitants of Strasbourg were suddenly seized by the strange and unstoppable compulsion to dance, from the imagined perspective of Mary, one of its witnesses.
Prone to mystic visions as a child, betrayed in the convent to which she flees, then abused by her loutish husband, Mary endures her life as an oppressed and ultimately scapegoated woman with courage, strength, and inspiring beauty. As difficult to interpret now (as a psychological reaction to social injustice?) as it was then (as a collective demonic possession?), the story of the "Dancing Plague" finds suitably extraordinary expression in the utterly unique mixed-media style Gareth Brookes has devised to tell it. The pioneering blend of his trademark "pyrographic" technique with sumptuously colourful (and literal) embroidery perfectly reflects, in a beautiful work of art, the enduring fragility of our human condition - from "choreomania" to coronavirus.
Prone to mystic visions as a child, betrayed in the convent to which she flees, then abused by her loutish husband, Mary endures her life as an oppressed and ultimately scapegoated woman with courage, strength, and inspiring beauty. As difficult to interpret now (as a psychological reaction to social injustice?) as it was then (as a collective demonic possession?), the story of the "Dancing Plague" finds suitably extraordinary expression in the utterly unique mixed-media style Gareth Brookes has devised to tell it. The pioneering blend of his trademark "pyrographic" technique with sumptuously colourful (and literal) embroidery perfectly reflects, in a beautiful work of art, the enduring fragility of our human condition - from "choreomania" to coronavirus.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
With flaps
Illustrations
Full colour illustration
Dimensions
Height: 170 mm
Width: 238 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
520 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-910593-98-1 (9781910593981)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Complete work / Part of the work

Book
06/2025
SelfMadeHero
€19.00
Shipment within 3-4 weeks
Person
Gareth Brookes studied printmaking at the Royal College of Art. His graphic novels include A Thousand Coloured Castles (2017) and The Black Project, which was nominated in the Selection Officielle at the 2018 Festival de la Bande Dessinee in Angouleme. His work has appeared in ArtReview, been published by Kus, and was included in the "Comics Unmasked" exhibition at the British Library in 2014.
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