The Great Storm that raged across much of England on the night of 26–27 November 1703 is often described as the worst to have hit the country. A hurricane that formed in the Caribbean before making its way over the Atlantic during the course of three or four days, it caused an immense amount of damage and led to the death of several thousand people. Naturally, the event would prompt a large quantity of reactions in print, most typically dire warnings issued by churchmen who detected God’s hand in a punishment for the wicked behaviour of the populace. But even secular writers were ready to see such disasters as auguries of fate, in an age when the decline of magic had not yet disposed of such irrational beliefs.

Daniel Defoe was responsible for three items that contributed to this flood

1842 words

Citation: Rogers, Pat. "The Storm". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 February 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7835, accessed 20 April 2024.]

7835 The Storm 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.