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Selections from The Diary of Samuel Pepys

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Selections from The Diary of Samuel Pepys

By: Samuel Pepys
Narrated by: Michael Maloney
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About this listen

 The Diary of Samuel Pepys is perhaps the most well known collection of reminiscences. He maintained it, in secrecy, from 1660, the year of the Restoration, until 1669 when fear of blindness prevented his daily labours. Though it covers less than a decade, it offers a lively and detailed insight into a period and a personality, for he noted events in both public and private life. Famous passages include descriptions of The Plague and the Great Fire of London.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

Public Domain (P)2005 Naxos AudioBooks Art & Literature Authors Europe European Historical Literary History & Criticism World World Literature Middle Ages

Editor reviews

Pepys's candid diaries are important for what they tell us about life in Restoration London, and delightful reading, for the author had a lively mind, a keen eye, and a strong personality. Abridger Pearson Phillips has chosen the excerpts well for this volume. With admirable vigor, narrator Michael Maloney tries to give a sense of Pepys's development over the tumultuous decade that the secret journals cover. He seems somewhat distracted, as if struggling with the seventeenth-century diction.
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I was surprised how entertaining these entries were; not only that I felt I learnt a lot about the everyday lives of Pepys, his friends and his work but also the politcal situation of his times. Major events like the plague and the Great Fire are of course well known, but other events like the war with the Dutch were made major concerns too because of Pepys' position in the naval office. The diaries were only written for ten years. but these were important and uncertain times beginning with the end of the Commonwealth and the return of the king, Charles II.

Pepys warts and all comes across as a warm, charming, caring and sometimes weak but honest human being with weakness which can only be forgiven because we are the intruders reading his very private and personal record of his life and times.

It is well-read and the excerpts are introduced by the narrator who fills in the gaps for us. Pepys' diaries have wit, excitement and, surprisingly, food. These extracts are definitely worth listening to as an introduction to the man and his times.

And so to bed.

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