The Diary Of Samuel Pepys, Volume 1

The Diary of Samuel Pepys #1

by Samuel Pepys

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454 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1906

About the author

Samuel Pepys was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament, who is now most famous for his diary. Although Pepys had no maritime experience, he rose by patronage, hard work and his talent for administration, to be the Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under King James II. His influence and reforms at the Admiralty were important in the early professionalization of the Royal Navy.

The detailed private diary he kept during 1660–1669 was first published in the nineteenth century, and is one of the most important primary sources for the English Restoration period. It provides a combination of personal revelation and eyewitness accounts of great events, such as the Great Plague of London, the Second Dutch War and the Great Fire of London.

His surname is usually pronounced /'pi:ps/ ('peeps').

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this more interesting than expected. I usually skip through prefaces, but I read all 159 pages of this one. 1660 was an interesting year: the year Charles II returned. I had assumed that this was just a swing back towards the Royalists, but Pepys makes it clear that, for many people, it was a return to democracy, which the elitist Rump parliament had been denying the country for so long. So - not just a return of a king (which as we know, led to other problems), but a return to more or less representative parliament.
We also see Pepys's rapid rise in the Civil Service. From being little more than an accountant for Lord Montagu, later the first Earl of Sandwich, in this year of 1660, he begins his meteoric rise to where he will eventually virtually run the Navy.
I did have a few problems with the copious footnotes which not only told me many things I didn't really want to know, but omitted to tell me things that I had to Google. For example, on Page 254 we are told how the King knighted Sir Richard Stayner and the note tells us how he was previously knighted under Cromwell. This is clearly of interest, although Pepys provides evidence of numerous Cromwell supporters who have changed sides and yet prospered under the King, including Sandwich himself. But I was struck by a line above that: "My Lord told me how the ship that brought the Princesse and him did knock six times upon the Kentish Knock..." - would it really have been that hard to have included a footnote telling us what the Kentish Knock is? (apparently a shoal near the mouth of the Thames). Nevertheless, the whole thing is admirably researched.

[Ricki · Rating 5 out of 5]

When one considers that Pepys was not yet 27 when this diary begins, the luck of having it in existence is even more overwhelming. To read of his being, though not commenting at the quality, of the first performance of 2 of Jonson's plays, let alone on the ships that brought Charles II back to England lent a vividness to the history of the period. It isn't a quick read as mulling over the who's who in the book required some thought - somewhere after a hundred pages or so I realised that the Sir W. Pen he referred to was the father of William Penn. The social history as well as the diplomatic/military history that it covers is fascinating.