Samuel Pepys Books

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.

Pepys never resumed the personal Diary which he abandoned in 1669 when he feared that he was going blind. But he did write several short diaries or journals at various key moments in his later life. Now available to the general reader, these documents enlarge and enhance our picture of Pepys as a politician and civil servant.

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.

The seventh 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.

The third 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 era, 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 wa

Illustrated version of selected passages from Pepys' diary between 1660 and 1669, showing his robust enjoyment of both his public and private lives

Intriguing insight into the minds of two exceptional men whose contribution to our understanding of 17th-century England is incalculable. SPECTATORPepys and Evelyn first came to know each other during the Second Dutch War (1664-7). As the plague raged in the London they loved, they were both preoccupied with the business of casualties from the war, Pepys as Clerk of the Acts, and Evelyn as a Commissioner for Sick and Wounded Seamen and Prisoners of War. Nearly forty years later they were still corresponding, exchanging details of remedies for the afflictions of old age. Their friendship, and their relations with others, as recorded in their famous diaries and letters, provide an exceptional opportunity to witness life at the heart of Restoration England. This book includes every letter which could be located (some of which have been lost for more than a hundred years), and the complete text of each has been newly transcribed and fully annotated. Evelyn and Pepys are revealed in fresh dimensions as many details of their lives and friendship emerge which go unmentioned, or are barely alluded to, in the diaries.GUY DE LA BEDOYERE, historian, archaeologist and broadcaster, has also published an edition of Evelyn's Diary and a collection of pieces by Evelyn, The Writings of John Evelyn.

The 1660s represent a turning point in English history, and for the main events -- the Restoration, the Dutch War, the Great Plague and the Fire of London -- Pepys provides a definitive eyewitness account. As well as recording public and historical events, Pepys paints a vivid picture of his personal life, from his socializing and amorous entanglements, to his theatre-going and his work at the Navy Board. Unequaled for its frankness, high spirits and sharp observations, the diary is both a literary masterpiece and a marvelous portrait of seventeenth-century life.Previously published as The Shorter Pepys, this edition is edited and abridged by Robert Latham, Fellow and Pepys Librarian at Magdalene College, Cambridge.