The Diary of Samuel Pepys

By Samuel Pepys, Richard Le Gallienne and Robert Louis Stevenson

The diary which Samuel Pepys kept from January 1660 to May 1669 ...is one of our greatest historical records and... a major work of English literature, writes the renowned historian Paul Johnson. A witness to the coronation of Charles II, the Great Plague of 1665, and the Great Fire of 1666, Pepys chronicled the events of his day. Originally written in a cryptic shorthand, Pepys's diary provides an astonishingly frank and diverting account of political intrigues and naval, church, and cultural affairs, as well as a quotidian journal of daily life in London during the Restoration.

In 1825, when Pepys's memoirs were first published, Francis Jeffrey of The Edinburgh Review declared, "We can scarcely say that we wish it a page shorter... it is very entertaining thus to be transported into the very heart of a time so long gone by; and to be admitted into the domestic intimacy, as well as the public councils of a man of great activity and circulation in the reign of Charles II." Edited and abridged by literary critic and author Richard Le Gallienne, this edition features an Introduction by Robert Louis Stevenson.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jul 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9780307824196

Reviews for The Diary of Samuel Pepys

[philipjohn_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of the most honest, perceptive and vivid first person accounts of a fascinating period.Teeming with life and directly connecting the major and minor players of seventeenth century England to the present with his eye for human vanities, joys of life and the motivations of power and class.

[pepys_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A great book which takes you back more than three centuries back, in the turbulent London of the Civil War & Restoration. There are a number of obscure—and sometimes uninteresting—passages where Pepys details his problems at work. But they are intermixed with everyday-life details which show that life in the 17c. wasn't so different from that in the present time (e.g. ordering and delivery of a new coach, supervision of the work done by carpenters at home, problems with the cesspool, where to stop over in town when you needed to pass a motion, &c.) The reading of this 3-volume selection of the Diary incites me to seriously consider the reading of the full 11-vol version...