Literature on virus contagion , quarantine and lockdown associated with pandemics range from the historical to the futuristic. It began with Giovanni Boccaccio’s masterpiece, the “Decameron,” is set on the outskirts of Florence in 1348. His protagonists have retreated to the countryside in the wake of the Black Death, which is decimating their city both mortally and socially. Michael Kuczynski Professor of English of Tulane University  in  The Advocate wrote an article in which he argued how as ancient as a 14^th century poet like Chaucer gave us some advices which will now help us in fighting COVID-19. Chaucer was only six year old during the occurrence of Black Death which carried  away nearly half of the population of Europe   Chaucer’s poetry is haunted by the plague. His first major work, "The Book of the Duchess," is a moving elegy for John of Gaunt’s wife, Blanche, who died in the pandemic. It is a lesson in the kind of empathy we need today, if we’re to survive the COVID-19 crisis.

From 1665 to 1666, bubonic plague returned to Britain and devastated the city of London — killing roughly one quarter of its population in the span of 18 months. Adieu, farewell earths blisse,/This world uncertaine is,/Fond are lifes lustful joyes,/Death proves them all but toyes,/None from his darts can flye;/I am sick, I must dye:/Lord, have mercy on us. wrote Thomas Nashe , the Elizabethan playwright who gained fame around the same time  when the bubonic plague hit London in  1592 when he escaped to countryside for avoiding infection.

During the 1592 outbreak of Plague Shakespeare too went to isolation and wrote two long poem books  Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucreece. Strong conjectures are still there that William Shakespeare wrote King Lear in quarantine. Over 50 years later, Daniel Defoe drew upon historical documents to write a realistic account of the plague’s effects on the city. Defoe’s novel is so realistic that we may get a prototype of our Corona-infected globe.

Today in Italy doctors have come up to write books not after dreams but in their awakened state in real time of Corona Pandemic . They are writing from their real experiences books after books on Corona. They think that Books on Corona are the need of the hour no less than vaccines as people in confined in their houses need books for both knowledge and pastime..Some futuristic books written earlier like The Eyes of Darkness are becoming prophetic books .Pablo Giodarno wrote his debut novel ‘The Solitude of Prime Numbers’ and bagged Italy’s  coveted award. The Premio Strega.

In 2018 he wrote a book ‘How Contagion Works ‘ and in the present day Italy when all are rushing to publish books on Corona this book becomes a best seller . On Feb 29 Pablo went to a dinner party where he maintained social distancing by not shaking hands not kissing all of which were a serious breach of social etiquette in Italy . His book will now be  released in the US by Penguin Random House. In March Dr Roberto Burioni published a book directly on Corona during the dance of death from Corona in Italy ‘ Virus the Great Challenge!’Startrek Corona is a mid 1980s horror ET thriller book but the name Corona is significant..

Similarly Duncan Foley’s In Quarantine from Australia is now a hot seller in global book market , Really  masks and futuristic books on Corona are now the two most selling things after the Bible and Shakespeare.