The Diary Of Samuel Pepys Vol 1

The Diary Of Samuel Pepys Vol 1
by Henry B. Whdatley F.s.a

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From AudioFile
Pepys's candid diaries are important for what they tell us about life in Restoration London, AND delightful reading, for the author had a lively mind, a keen eye, and a strong personality. Abridger Pearson Phillips has chosen the excerpts well for this volume. With admirable vigor, narrator Michael Maloney tries to give a sense of Pepys's development over the tumultuous decade that the secret journals cover. But he seems distracted, as if struggling with the seventeenth-century diction, and comes off a bit flat and awkward. Y.R. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Review
"Pepys led a full, varied and voraciously-enjoyed life and clearly took pleasure in setting it all down in plain words. Unlike most frantically busy men, he had remarkable powers of observation."
--Paul Johnson

"The bald truth about oneself, what we are all too timid to admit when we are not too dull to see it, that was what Pepys saw clearly and set down unsparingly."
--Robert Louis Stevenson

"Alexander conquered the world; but Pepys, with a keener, more selfish understanding of life, conquered a world for every sense."
--Charles Whibley

Book Description
Samuel Pepys is as much a paragon of literature as Chaucer and Shakespeare. His Diary is one of the principal sources for many aspects of the history of its period. In spite of its significance, all previous editions were inadequately edited and suffered from a number of omissions--until Robert Latham and William Matthews went back to the 300-year-old original manuscript and deciphered each passage and phrase, no matter how obscure or indiscreet.
The Diary deals with some of the most dramatic events in English history. Pepys witnessed the London Fire, the Great Plague, the Restoration of Charles II, and the Dutch Wars. He was a patron of the arts, having himself composed many delightful songs and participated in the artistic life of London. His flair for gossip and detail reveals a portrait of the times that rivals the most swashbuckling and romantic historical novels. In none of the earlier versions was there a reliable, full text, with commentary and notation with any claim to completeness. This edition, first published in 1970, is the first in which the entire diary is printed with systematic comment. This is the only complete edition available; it is as close to Pepys's original as possible.

Inside Flap Copy
Richard Le Gallienne?s elegant abridgment of the Diary captures the essential writings of Samuel Pepys (1633?1703), a remarkable man who witnessed the coronation of Charles II, the Great Plague of 1665, and the Great Fire of 1666. Originally scribbled in a cryptic shorthand, Pepys?s quotidian journal of life in Restoration London provides an astonishingly frank and diverting account of political intrigues; naval, church, and cultural affairs; and the sexual escapades and domestic strife of a man with a voracious, childlike appetite for living. ?As a human document the Diary is literally unique,? notes Le Gallienne. ?It will have a still greater value for its historical importance.?

From the Back Cover
“One of our greatest historical records . . . a major work of English literature.” —Paul Johnson

About the Author
Robert Latham was Pepys Librarian at Magdalene College, Cambridge. In addition to editing the eleven volumes of The Diary of Samuel Pepys, he was the editor of the acclaimed Shorter Pepys (1985) and A Pepys Anthology (1988), both published by University of California Press. William Matthews was Professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles.

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