The Diaries of Samuel Pepys - A Selection (Penguin Classics)

by Samuel Pepys (Author), Robert Latham (Editor)

• New

  Paperback
  2003

  $19.67

  The 1660s represent a turning point in English history, and for the main events - the Restoration, the Dutch War, the Great Plague, the Fire of London - Pepys provides a definitive eyewitness account. Along with lively descriptions of his socializing, his amorous entanglements, his theater-going & music-making. Unequaled for its frankness, high spirits & sharp observations, the diary is both a literary masterpiece & a marvelous portrait of 17th-century life.

• Used

  Paperback
  2010

  $3.47

  The sixth volume of the complete Diary of Samuel Pepys in its most authoritative and acclaimed edition.

  This complete edition of the Diary of Samuel Pepys comprises eleven volumes - nine volumes of text and footnotes (with an introduction of 120 pages in Volume I), a tenth volume of commentary (The Companion) and an eleventh volume of Index. Each of the first eight volumes contains one whole calendar year of the diary, from January to December. The ninth volume runs from January 1668 to May 1669.

  The Diary was first published in abbreviated form in 1825. A succession of new editions, re-issues and selections, published in the Victorian ear, made the diary one of the best-known books, and Pepys one of the best-known figures, of English history. But in none of these versions - not even in the Wheatley, which for long stood as the standard edition - was there a reliable, still less a full text, and in none of them was there a commentary with any claim to completeness. This edition was in preparation for many years, and remains the first in which the entire diary is printed and in which an attempt has been made at systematic comment on it.

  The primary aim of the principal editors was to see that the diary was presented in a manner suitable to the historical and literary importance of its contents. At the same time they had in mind the interests of the wide public of English-speaking people to whom the diarist himself, rather than the importance of what he wrote, is what matters.

• Used

  Hardcover
  1983

  $3.47

• New

  Paperback
  2010

  $16.79

  The perfect introduction to the Diary of Samuel Pepys, with Diary extracts arranged by subject.

  In this short anthology, selected from Samuel Pepys's famous Diary, passages are collected together by subject, providing a fresh look at some of the themes that run through the massive complete work. Robert and Linnet Latham's lively and skilful presentation allows the reader to become absorbed in a single topic without interruption, often providing new insight into Pepys's private and public life.

  We see Pepys the man of fashion, the booklover, the musician, the theatre-goer, Pepys the husband and Pepys the public servant, at work and at leisure. From festivals such as Christmas and Twelfth Night, enjoyed with family and friends, to the great events such as the Fire and the Plague described so vividly in the Diary, Pepys's life and times are revealed in all their richness and variety.

  And for the first time, we can read as continuous narrative some of the stories interwoven with daily events - the long entangled saga of his affair with Deb Willet and the tale of the Dancing Master.

  For anyone unfamiliar with Pepys, this anthology will serve as a delightful introduction, while lovers of the Diary will take pleasure in rediscovering favourite passages.