The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol. 7: 1666

Samuel Pepys

University of California Press, Dec 15, 2000 - Biography & Autobiography - 461 pages

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.

About the author

Samuel Pepys was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man. By his hard work and his talent for administration, he rose to be the Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under both King Charles II and King James II. The detailed private diary Pepys kept from 1660 until 1669 was first published in the 19th 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. Pepys's diary has become a national monument. The diary was written in one of the many standard forms of shorthand used in Pepys's time, in this case called Tachygraphy; devised by Thomas Shelton. At the end of May 1669, he reluctantly concluded that, for the sake of his eyes, he should completely stop writing and, from then on, only dictate to his clerks which meant he could no longer keep his diary. In total, Pepys wrote for approximately nine years. This collection of both personal and political accounts is an important timepiece that illustartes life in 17th Century England. When Pepys died on May 26, 1703, he had no children and left his entire estate to his nephew, John Jackson. His estate included over 3,000 volumes in his collection of books. All of these were indexed and catalogued; they form one of the most important surviving private laibraries of the 17th century.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol. 7: 1666; Volume 7 of The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol. 7; Volume 7 of The Diary of Samuel Pepys: A New and Complete Transcription, William A. Armstrong
• Author: Samuel Pepys
• Editors: Robert Latham, William G. Mathews
• Edition: illustrated, reprint, reissue
• Publisher: University of California Press, 2000
• ISBN: 0520226984, 9780520226982
• Length: 461 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Historical; Biography & Autobiography / Literary Figures; Biography & Autobiography / Political; History / Europe / Great Britain / Stuart Era (1603-1714); Literary Collections / Diaries & Journals; Literary Collections / Letters; Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Social Science / Customs & Traditions