― Daniel Defoe, A Journal of the Plague Year
There is some dispute as to whether Defoe's book should be classed as fiction or non-fiction. On the one hand, all the places, events, and happenings in it seem to be verifiably true. On the other, it reads like a novel and, though it's written in the first person, that person isn't Daniel Defoe: he was only five in 1665. It seems likely that he based the book on the personal journal of his uncle Henry Foe; like the protagonist, Foe was a saddler (made & sold saddles) in London, and Defoe actually published the book using the initials H.F.
In any case, as a work of accurate historical fiction A Journal Of The Plague Year is informative both about the progression of the plague and peoples' response to it. Although of course our "plague" today is much different, certain facets- such as found in the above quote- remain very familiar.