The Diary of Samuel Pepys

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Samuel Pepys

Biography & Memoir

Jul 31, 2018

Samuel Pepys (pronounced “peeps”) was an ambitious, hardworking civil servant who had a highly successful career as an official in the Royal Navy. He loved music, good food, women, and books (he possessed one of the most extensive libraries of his time). For almost a decade—from January 1660 to May 1669—he kept what is beyond question the greatest diary in the English language. What’s best and most absorbing about the Diary is its vivid personal scale: For example, Pepys’s unforgettable eyewitness account of the 1666 Great Fire of London—perhaps the most famous set piece in the entire chronicle—includes the detail that the diarist took time from his civic duties in the crisis to dig a pit to protect his papers, wine, and parmesan cheese from the rampaging flames.

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Jane Huttner

Jan 19, 2019

I read the Le Gallienne abridged 1 volume version. I thought the book was a great read. it really showed how a common man lived in that era. One thing I found interesting was that every year he would take his books to be rebound if he was keeping them. He wanted them all to look the same. It made me think of the start of Masterpiece Theater on AMC. They have someone present the movie and he is sitting in a library where the books are all bound the same. The ones he didn't want to keep he treated like a paperback of today. He'd read part, tear it out and burn it. I did the same thing when I read the Bible. I have a good copy, but I also had a copy that was coming unbound. So I took the cover off, cut sections apart and put them in a quart Ziploc bag so they would stay together. I took one section, put it in my purse and read it. When I was finished, I threw it away. I kept doing that and I read the entire Bible in 15 months. I knew I finished it because there were no more sections to read. I do the same things with magazines when I take a plane ride. I bring several magazines I know I don't want to keep. Read & toss or give to someone else on the plane. As I travel my bag gets lighter and lighter. I also thought it interesting that he put himself on a budget and really cut down his entertainment expenses so he could save money to buy a house. I have told over 10 people about this book: one person said I should start a blog on what I read, and several others say it sound like a really good book and wrote the title down.

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