I never knew that Jack London wrote something called The Scarlet Plague and it was futuristic fiction. He wrote this in 1912 and at times during the story I thought about what happened with COVID-19 and what could have happened if we at that time didn’t come together and actually do what we could to contain it. I think that parts of the book though were just confusing at times (random wording occurring). I got the free version of this story so I am sure that was due to formatting errors. That said, parts of the dialogue by the character of Granser just dragged for a bit.
The Scarlet Plague takes place in 2073. So about 50 years past our present day and at the time almost a hundred for London. A plague has gone through and wiped out most of humanity and now “tribes” exist, but there seems to be about only 400 people left on Earth. The story starts off with an older man who can barely move named Granser and his grandson Edwin out looking for animals to hunt. We eventually move to the two of them coming up on other members of their tribe who catch crabs for Granser to eat and proceed to beg him to tell them all about the Scarlet Death and how it wiped out everyone.
The characters are crudely depicted and there’s no real development there. The plot as it is, is just a story in a story telling about the end of all things. What I found fascinating is that Granser talks about the President who was appointed by a Board of Magnates….yeah even London saw the billionaire class rising up I guess back in 1912.
The setting is San Francisco, but not one that would feel familiar to people who live there now.
The ending is sad though because you have Granser (who at one time was a professor) reeling over the fact that soon no one will be alive that will remember how things were before the plague ravaged the Earth.
I read this for Halloween Bingo 2025, “Plague & Disease.”