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Publication
Viking (2002), Edition: 1st edition, 22nd printing, 544 pages
Description
Samuel Pepys achieved fame as a naval administrator, a friend and colleague of the powerful and learned, a figure of substance. But for nearly ten years he kept a private diary in which he recorded, with unparalleled openness and sensitivity to the turbulent world around him, exactly what it was like to be a young man in Restoration London. This diary lies at the heart of Claire Tomalin's biography. Yet the use she makes of it - and of other hitherto unexamined material - is startlingly fresh and original. Within and beyond the narrative of Pepys's extraordinary career, she explores his inner life - his relations with women, his fears and ambitions, his political shifts, his agonies and his delights.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Mercury57
Plague, fire, civil war, treason, the fall of kings: Samuel Pepys experienced them all. His was a life that coincided with one of the most momentous periods of English history and he recorded his experiences in meticulous detail in leather-bound diaries writing every day for nine years.
Such a rich
Tomalin tells the story with panache and energy. Although she has to resort to guess-work and surmise on some occasions, she never stretches credulity too far. Nor, although much of what she writes is necessarily full of facts, she never allows that detail to get in the way of telling a good story. One of the most memorable episodes she tells is of the operation Pepys underwent to remove the bladder stone which had given him excruciating pain for decades. In Tomalin’s imaginative re-creation we experience the same tension Pepys must have felt as he was trussed and bound to the bed and sense every moment of the operation he suffered without the benefit of anaesthetic or numbing alcohol.
Tomalin treats her subject with warmth, enjoying his pleasure in ordinary human activities and admiring his curiousity, his love and support for learning and his intelligence. She acknowledges his egotism, his often bad treatment of the women in his life and his lecherous behaviour but concludes that these never dim his brightness so we ‘rarely lose all sympathy for him. His energy burns off blame.” It’s a credit to Tomalin’s skill that we come to share her enthusiasm for this ‘most ordinary and the most extraordinary’ of men.
Such a rich
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source of original material would be a gift for any biographer but for Claire Tomalin they didn’t go far enough because they tell us nothing of Pepys’ childhood and education or, after the Restoration, his public disgrace and humiliation. Through extensive research and examination of contemporary letters and diaries, Admiralty papers, judicial reports, memoirs and biographies, she seeks to fill in these considerable gaps in Pepys’ story.Tomalin tells the story with panache and energy. Although she has to resort to guess-work and surmise on some occasions, she never stretches credulity too far. Nor, although much of what she writes is necessarily full of facts, she never allows that detail to get in the way of telling a good story. One of the most memorable episodes she tells is of the operation Pepys underwent to remove the bladder stone which had given him excruciating pain for decades. In Tomalin’s imaginative re-creation we experience the same tension Pepys must have felt as he was trussed and bound to the bed and sense every moment of the operation he suffered without the benefit of anaesthetic or numbing alcohol.
Tomalin treats her subject with warmth, enjoying his pleasure in ordinary human activities and admiring his curiousity, his love and support for learning and his intelligence. She acknowledges his egotism, his often bad treatment of the women in his life and his lecherous behaviour but concludes that these never dim his brightness so we ‘rarely lose all sympathy for him. His energy burns off blame.” It’s a credit to Tomalin’s skill that we come to share her enthusiasm for this ‘most ordinary and the most extraordinary’ of men.
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LibraryThing member Greatrakes
My favourite subject in history is 17th century England, ten years ago, when almost every book seemed to be set in Elizabethan or Victorian times, there wasn't much to read. Times have changed and so many history books, biographies and novels are set in and around the Restoration that I cannot keep
This book is one of the best I have read, Tomalin uses many sources, and gives as good an account of the times through which Pepyss lived as any I have found. The diary is bound to dominate all books about Pepys, and quite rightly as it is such an unusual and compelling work. The book certainly buzzes more when it covers the diary years , but held my interest throughout.
The book is laid out in a broadly chronological way, dealing with the different "ages", but within each broad age is broken down in to subjects, such as politics, war, money and so on. This causes some repetion but allows Tomalin to bring in other contemporary sources that shed more light on Pepys world and I thought the technique worked well.
One of the central questions about Pepys is, why did he write those diaries? They are candid, unpublishable in his lifetime (and written in code to avoid discovery) and yet Pepys makes no attempt to cast himself in a good light, I think Tomalin believes he was engaged in an act of self discovery, he was fascinated by knowledge, science and human behavior and was widely read and President of the Royal Society, so that all seems quite plausible to me.
I didn't dislike Pepys, as other reviewers did, he wasn't a "nice" person, but who of us is?
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up.This book is one of the best I have read, Tomalin uses many sources, and gives as good an account of the times through which Pepyss lived as any I have found. The diary is bound to dominate all books about Pepys, and quite rightly as it is such an unusual and compelling work. The book certainly buzzes more when it covers the diary years , but held my interest throughout.
The book is laid out in a broadly chronological way, dealing with the different "ages", but within each broad age is broken down in to subjects, such as politics, war, money and so on. This causes some repetion but allows Tomalin to bring in other contemporary sources that shed more light on Pepys world and I thought the technique worked well.
One of the central questions about Pepys is, why did he write those diaries? They are candid, unpublishable in his lifetime (and written in code to avoid discovery) and yet Pepys makes no attempt to cast himself in a good light, I think Tomalin believes he was engaged in an act of self discovery, he was fascinated by knowledge, science and human behavior and was widely read and President of the Royal Society, so that all seems quite plausible to me.
I didn't dislike Pepys, as other reviewers did, he wasn't a "nice" person, but who of us is?
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LibraryThing member Lukerik
I read the diary recently and was left wondering what happened to everybody, and how Pepys felt when his wife died, when he was sacked, when he was imprisoned. This book gives you the information you need to imagine those things. I'm deeply impressed by the depth of Tomalin's knowledge. It's also
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exceptionally well written on a word by word basis, but also in it's structure, with the expository background history deployed at those points where we don't know the day to day doings of Pepys. I could actually have done with more information on the Popish Plot, but I suppose it would be outside the scope of a biography. I had trouble keeping track of everyone in the diary, and working out exactly what it was that Pepys did professionally and this book helped clarify it. Tomalin also has a dry sense of humour and an eye for an amusing detail. Show Less
LibraryThing member Eurydice
I must chime in with the previous reviews - without, if possible, rehashing them! Compliments to my predecessors - particularly antimuzak and nwhyte - on covering the basic ground. As regards quality, we are all agreed. Absorbing and admirable, Tomalin's biography adds much-needed context to the
Tomalin's strength, as others have noted, rests in her research and her tone. She treats her subject with a brilliantly balanced love and objectivity: neither demonizing him for his faults, nor afraid or unwilling to censure, she also clearly appreciates his achievements and abilities. From Tomalin, the biography gains a tempered warmth, a cool humanity; a beautifully marshalled research; and imaginative entry into unrecorded life, which never seems to venture too far. Her prose is clear, yet fine.
Though aware generally of Pepys' importance in Navy administration, I found the chapters after the diary, and the details of his further rise, innovations, struggles, and scandals, fascinating and invaluable.
Perhaps one of the biography's greatest pleasures, for me, was not confined to the book itself, though it may redound credit on Tomalin, for her handling and contextualization. Having read a fair clutch of biographies and history from the same period, as I read I am not only seeing Pepys' life thread through history I know well (and for which he is a common source) - as through a crowded avenue, past familiar landmarks - but watching his jostling in the crowd, eager and alert, with acquaintances of my own. The sense of his milieu in the biography is strong, certainly in the later years; but so is the beauty of connections which layered reading brings.
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few years of the Diary's span, carrying us into the years beyond. It functions beautifully as an introduction to Pepys (my own purpose), as well as the more obvious companion volume to diary reading. She gives enough detail on the diary years that a first-time reader would (I think) feel well-oriented; yet not so much as could possibly 'ruin' it. Tomalin's strength, as others have noted, rests in her research and her tone. She treats her subject with a brilliantly balanced love and objectivity: neither demonizing him for his faults, nor afraid or unwilling to censure, she also clearly appreciates his achievements and abilities. From Tomalin, the biography gains a tempered warmth, a cool humanity; a beautifully marshalled research; and imaginative entry into unrecorded life, which never seems to venture too far. Her prose is clear, yet fine.
Though aware generally of Pepys' importance in Navy administration, I found the chapters after the diary, and the details of his further rise, innovations, struggles, and scandals, fascinating and invaluable.
Perhaps one of the biography's greatest pleasures, for me, was not confined to the book itself, though it may redound credit on Tomalin, for her handling and contextualization. Having read a fair clutch of biographies and history from the same period, as I read I am not only seeing Pepys' life thread through history I know well (and for which he is a common source) - as through a crowded avenue, past familiar landmarks - but watching his jostling in the crowd, eager and alert, with acquaintances of my own. The sense of his milieu in the biography is strong, certainly in the later years; but so is the beauty of connections which layered reading brings.
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LibraryThing member PensiveCat
A biography of one of the world's most famous diarists. Drawing mostly from his own writings, and explaining them in the context of the times, I was truly drawn into Restoration England. London was portrayed as a dirty city and Pepys as a rather chauvinistic man, but I ended up quite liking the
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city and the man anyway. There's a graphic description of surgery in that time period that might put you off your lunch, so dieters, enjoy! Show Less
LibraryThing member redtedari
A wonderful biography that informs as well as entertains. Samuel Pepys is interpreted through his own writings - warts and all. He lived a long life during a tumultous time in English history - the beheading of Charles I, Cromwell and then Restoration. Fascinating polital manoevres, as well as
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personal dramas. Claire Tomalin is a wonderful biography writer. Show Less
LibraryThing member isabelx
Read for the Motley Fool book club. well I say read, but the library only had an audio-book copy on the shelves when I went in. I didn't know before reading this that Samuel Pepys' relatives were right at the centre of the Roundhead faction. Very interesting! I liked the way the book started, with
The diaries give a picture of a complex man, at times romantic and usually loyal but always pragmatic. As a naval administrator he was well-organised, thorough and hard-working and it seems clear that Pepys survived the vagaries of 17th Century political life through being very good at his job. He left such a detailed view of London life, politics and society, that you just can't help being drawn into the 1660s.
Most amusing moment: Mrs Skinner, mother of the woman who Pepys has lived with for 30 years left Pepys a small bequest in her will - just enough gold to make a ring. Obviously a woman who believed in having the last word!
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a diary entry about an argument with his wife being used to show how he tells things as they happened, and doesn't twist things to make himself always appear to be in the right. Reading about Pepys wading knee-deep in cloves and nutmeg in the captured Dutch ship reminded me of a book I read last month; "Nathaniel's Nutmeg", a non-fiction account of the struggles between the English and Dutch East Indies companies for control of the spice trade earlier in the 17th century. The diaries give a picture of a complex man, at times romantic and usually loyal but always pragmatic. As a naval administrator he was well-organised, thorough and hard-working and it seems clear that Pepys survived the vagaries of 17th Century political life through being very good at his job. He left such a detailed view of London life, politics and society, that you just can't help being drawn into the 1660s.
Most amusing moment: Mrs Skinner, mother of the woman who Pepys has lived with for 30 years left Pepys a small bequest in her will - just enough gold to make a ring. Obviously a woman who believed in having the last word!
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LibraryThing member John_Vaughan
As Samuel is one of my heroes (a short list of historical figures “who wink at us” – as Walter Isaacson said of Ben Franklin) and owning the Diaries in several formats I was a little cautious in approaching Tomalin’s work. How glad I was that I did, and I devoured it at one sitting,
When we lived in London for about seven years my wife and two sons would often explore the city, and often took along one of the ‘complete’ diaries with us and revisited – as one still can – many of naughty Samuel’s favorite flirting, drinking and eating spots.
Claire Tomalin’s work evidences her sheer enjoyment of this great and all too human character, who wrote for his own personal enjoyment of his times and significant career in the creation of the British Navy, through England’s own revolution and short Republic and the eventual return of the Monarch that Pepys served so well.
This book is as deeply intelligent and as charming as the subject himself
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returning to re-read it with equal enjoyment as often as I can (a benefit of growing maturity this!) and it always leads me back to my small collection of Pepys books. When we lived in London for about seven years my wife and two sons would often explore the city, and often took along one of the ‘complete’ diaries with us and revisited – as one still can – many of naughty Samuel’s favorite flirting, drinking and eating spots.
Claire Tomalin’s work evidences her sheer enjoyment of this great and all too human character, who wrote for his own personal enjoyment of his times and significant career in the creation of the British Navy, through England’s own revolution and short Republic and the eventual return of the Monarch that Pepys served so well.
This book is as deeply intelligent and as charming as the subject himself
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LibraryThing member aaronbaron
An excellent survey and meditation on the great diarist Pepys. This in Pepys uncut; Tomlin does not spare us his lust, vanity, or all too convenient doublethink. We love him all the more for it, because this man was also insatiably curious, inexhaustible, intelligent, and shockingly, wonderfully
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candid. The book provides a good foundation to the excellent pepysdiary.com. Show Less
LibraryThing member dougwood57
Claire Tomalin's Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self is quite simply one of the best reads in history, biography or any other genre in a long time. It deservedly carried off the Whitbread Book of the Year in 2002. Pepys lived through the tumultuous changes of the 17th century from Charles I to the
Tomalin's story rather naturally divides into three parts: pre-diary years, the diary years from 1660-1669, and the post-diary years when Pepys reached his greatest heights and suffered his greatest losses, personal and professional. In the first and last parts Tomalin gives us an excellent if fairly standard biography, but one informed by the incredible detail and honesty of the diary years.
When the reader reaches the end of the diary years one feels a sense of deprivation, a sense almost of being cheated. Pepys has drawn the curtain closed and we are no longer privy to the intimate details of Pepys daily activities at court, in the street, in the bedroom. Tomalin's own sense of loss is palpable.
Pepys began life as the son of London tailor and managed to reach the highest levels of English government as an advisor to kings by dint of hard work and obsequious obeisance to a number of benefactors, beginning with Edward Montague. An assiduous rump smoocher was he. Along the way he switched from being a supporter of Cromwell and Parliament to backing Charles II and James II. As a high-level naval official he instituted many practices that made the Royal Navy the greatest in the world. Unfortunately for Pepys, Charles II was a wastrel and James II an open Catholic whose religion cost him his crown. His connection to them cost him some time in the Tower of London.
There are many diaries, but few that are as perceptive and honest as Pepys' or as fruitful at sweeping in the details of daily life in mid-1600s England. According to Tomalin, Pepys diary gives more detail about the life of young working class girls and women, the maids, cooks, and serving girls, as almost any other source. Pepys also had a strong appetite for women and he did not hesitate to use his position to get what he desired, which he also details in his diary.
Pepys' diary and his own achievements show him as a remarkably energetic man with a strongly curious mind. Although not a scientist himself Pepys had a curious mind and also belonged to the Royal Society serving a term as its president. Pepys displays a willingness to work and to fawn as necessary in order to advance. The diary also shows him as a frequent sexual harasser (although his behavior may have been within the norms of the day at least as far as the men were concerned). And while he excelled at his work, he also was not above taking a bit of an "inducement" on the side. We would call these payments bribes, but Pepys seems to have viewed them more like service charges and he seems not to have acted contrary to the navy's best interests. These bribes were usually in pound notes (often sizeable), but he also had a long-running arrangement with a ship's captain for free access to the sexual favors of the captain's wife (Her name: Mrs. Bagwell!).
What is truly remarkable is that we know all these things and know them to be true for a certainty only because Pepys wrote them in his diary, a diary that it is generally believed Pepys fully intended to be publicly read some day (he included the six volumes in his library that he bequeathed it to Magdalene College, Cambridge).
Highest recommendation.
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Commonwealth and back to Charles II and James II and finally through the Glorious Revolution that brought the Dutch William III to the English crown. That century contained plagues, the great London fire, revolution, counterrevolution, and the emergence of science. Pepys experienced it all and for some 9 years wrote a comprehensive, perceptive, and extremely candid diary. Tomalin's story rather naturally divides into three parts: pre-diary years, the diary years from 1660-1669, and the post-diary years when Pepys reached his greatest heights and suffered his greatest losses, personal and professional. In the first and last parts Tomalin gives us an excellent if fairly standard biography, but one informed by the incredible detail and honesty of the diary years.
When the reader reaches the end of the diary years one feels a sense of deprivation, a sense almost of being cheated. Pepys has drawn the curtain closed and we are no longer privy to the intimate details of Pepys daily activities at court, in the street, in the bedroom. Tomalin's own sense of loss is palpable.
Pepys began life as the son of London tailor and managed to reach the highest levels of English government as an advisor to kings by dint of hard work and obsequious obeisance to a number of benefactors, beginning with Edward Montague. An assiduous rump smoocher was he. Along the way he switched from being a supporter of Cromwell and Parliament to backing Charles II and James II. As a high-level naval official he instituted many practices that made the Royal Navy the greatest in the world. Unfortunately for Pepys, Charles II was a wastrel and James II an open Catholic whose religion cost him his crown. His connection to them cost him some time in the Tower of London.
There are many diaries, but few that are as perceptive and honest as Pepys' or as fruitful at sweeping in the details of daily life in mid-1600s England. According to Tomalin, Pepys diary gives more detail about the life of young working class girls and women, the maids, cooks, and serving girls, as almost any other source. Pepys also had a strong appetite for women and he did not hesitate to use his position to get what he desired, which he also details in his diary.
Pepys' diary and his own achievements show him as a remarkably energetic man with a strongly curious mind. Although not a scientist himself Pepys had a curious mind and also belonged to the Royal Society serving a term as its president. Pepys displays a willingness to work and to fawn as necessary in order to advance. The diary also shows him as a frequent sexual harasser (although his behavior may have been within the norms of the day at least as far as the men were concerned). And while he excelled at his work, he also was not above taking a bit of an "inducement" on the side. We would call these payments bribes, but Pepys seems to have viewed them more like service charges and he seems not to have acted contrary to the navy's best interests. These bribes were usually in pound notes (often sizeable), but he also had a long-running arrangement with a ship's captain for free access to the sexual favors of the captain's wife (Her name: Mrs. Bagwell!).
What is truly remarkable is that we know all these things and know them to be true for a certainty only because Pepys wrote them in his diary, a diary that it is generally believed Pepys fully intended to be publicly read some day (he included the six volumes in his library that he bequeathed it to Magdalene College, Cambridge).
Highest recommendation.
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LibraryThing member lyzadanger
Thorough, thorough, thorough.
Exhaustive, exhaustive, exhaustive.
Illuminating, educating, insightful.
Narrative, entertaining, if dense.
Recommended for those who have intrigue for the age of the Scientific Revolution, English civil war, inflamed religious sparring, stench, gender injustice and lords
The layperson may find that it would have been well-served to be edited in length by about one-third.
Long, long, long.
Exhaustive, exhaustive, exhaustive.
Illuminating, educating, insightful.
Narrative, entertaining, if dense.
Recommended for those who have intrigue for the age of the Scientific Revolution, English civil war, inflamed religious sparring, stench, gender injustice and lords
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and commoners of intense political ambition.The layperson may find that it would have been well-served to be edited in length by about one-third.
Long, long, long.
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LibraryThing member Pepys
A very good book to savour. I read it after having read a compressed, 3-volume edition of the Diary. The Diary is sometimes difficult to understand. With Claire Tomalin's book, everything is now clear! (Or at least much clearer.) Next step for me: read the full version of the Diary...
My only regret
My only regret
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is that there was not much description of the shorthand used by Pepys. I tried to understand the first page of the Diary, which the present book gives in both shorthand & longhand, but it would have been interesting to know a bit more about the technique. A brilliant work anyway! Show Less
LibraryThing member PhilSyphe
Samuel Pepys is one of history’s most colourful characters, so I expected this biography to reflect that, but I only enjoyed the book in parts. I admit to skipping over certain dry or off-topic subjects that didn’t hold my attention.
By “off-topic”, I mean when the author includes too much
The political side of things didn’t interest me, except for Pepys’s direct interaction with Charles II and James II. Pepys’s personal life appealed to me most. His relationship with his wife and his adulterous affairs made for the most engaging reading.
By “off-topic”, I mean when the author includes too much
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detail about someone or some event related to Pepys, but not directly involving him. If this sort of thing had been cut, the bio would’ve been a much more entertaining read.The political side of things didn’t interest me, except for Pepys’s direct interaction with Charles II and James II. Pepys’s personal life appealed to me most. His relationship with his wife and his adulterous affairs made for the most engaging reading.
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LibraryThing member saligo
An amazing read - thoroughly engrossing, an extraordinarily complete and researched piece of work but never ever a moment where it was tough going - enthralling and as others have said left you feeling bereft when you had finished it. Genius - indeed have now read others of Tomalin's books - Jane
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Austen and The Other Woman (Nell - Dicken's mistress) and both intensely human while never sacrificing accuracy and honesty. Show Less
LibraryThing member KirkLowery
I really think Pepy's diary is too distracting to biographers. Obviously the most important source of information about his life, its salaciousness obscures his actual work and accomplishments. I long for a biography that would focus upon his impact on the British Navy and politics of the time.
LibraryThing member Cecrow
Samuel Pepys presents a double-edged sword to his biographers: a wonderful, personal source document to work from that provides a treasure of insights not just into his daily activities but also into his uncensored personal life, at the same time as it leaves little from those years to explore.
Claire Tomalin overcame this obstacle with aplomb. She draws out the diary's themes and expands them into full chapters that move forwards and backwards in time. She adds colour and context from other source material to provide the background to events and people that Samuel knew so well he took no time to explain. In this we have the evidence that Samuel did not write for readers beyond himself, and this is the gap that his biographer so ably fills. This biography proved an excellent aid to interpreting the much-abridged version of the diary I chose to read, which I would have found underwhelming otherwise.
A full biography also requires exploring the before-and-after. Here we have a good picture of Pepys' birth, upbringing, education and political leanings prior to the diary. The diary's first entry in 1660 plunges us into the Interregnum's final thrashings at a most uncertain moment, when no one knew what form of government was going to take shape prior to General Monck's march on London. Tomalin explores why this was the diary's starting point, why a diary at all, and what Samuel might have been aiming to accomplish with it. On the other side, nine years later, she explores why it was discontinued and then describes Pepys' life afterwards, which did not lack for additional significant events.
Tomalin maintains objectivity throughout even when Sam doesn't deserve it, particularly when he is philandering with the unwilling and the very young (i.e. sexual abuse, cut and dried). She is not necessarily a proponent of the man, but she is certainly one for the diary: for the multi-faceted insight it provides into the merging between the public face that Pepys presents in all official records and who he was behind closed doors. The diary sees no line between the two, transitioning back and forth at will. Tomalin's thesis is that the result is a unique and significant record, not merely for its period but possibly for all time, and Pepys' greatest legacy, even above the good he did for the British Royal Navy. A biography fantastically well-written, researched and delivered.
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What can a biographer do but to summarize those key nine years of his life, like a condensed abridged version of what would be better read in full?Claire Tomalin overcame this obstacle with aplomb. She draws out the diary's themes and expands them into full chapters that move forwards and backwards in time. She adds colour and context from other source material to provide the background to events and people that Samuel knew so well he took no time to explain. In this we have the evidence that Samuel did not write for readers beyond himself, and this is the gap that his biographer so ably fills. This biography proved an excellent aid to interpreting the much-abridged version of the diary I chose to read, which I would have found underwhelming otherwise.
A full biography also requires exploring the before-and-after. Here we have a good picture of Pepys' birth, upbringing, education and political leanings prior to the diary. The diary's first entry in 1660 plunges us into the Interregnum's final thrashings at a most uncertain moment, when no one knew what form of government was going to take shape prior to General Monck's march on London. Tomalin explores why this was the diary's starting point, why a diary at all, and what Samuel might have been aiming to accomplish with it. On the other side, nine years later, she explores why it was discontinued and then describes Pepys' life afterwards, which did not lack for additional significant events.
Tomalin maintains objectivity throughout even when Sam doesn't deserve it, particularly when he is philandering with the unwilling and the very young (i.e. sexual abuse, cut and dried). She is not necessarily a proponent of the man, but she is certainly one for the diary: for the multi-faceted insight it provides into the merging between the public face that Pepys presents in all official records and who he was behind closed doors. The diary sees no line between the two, transitioning back and forth at will. Tomalin's thesis is that the result is a unique and significant record, not merely for its period but possibly for all time, and Pepys' greatest legacy, even above the good he did for the British Royal Navy. A biography fantastically well-written, researched and delivered.
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LibraryThing member wagner.sarah35
I've read enough fiction and nonfiction about Restoration England to know who Samuel Pepys was, but this biography provided a fuller account of his life and his famous diary than the glimpses I'd had previously. Analysis and overviews of the diary Pepys kept from 1660 to 1669 account for nearly a
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third of this book, dividing his life into periods before, during, and after he kept the diary so well known today. I found the later period of Pepys' life fascinating, as I hadn't known he was a loyal Jacobite and largely sacrificed his career due to his personal loyalty to James II, and, of course, the story of how the famous diary came to be discovered, transcribed, and published is a tale all its own. This is an excellent read for those interested in the Restoration period and is a highly valuable biography for fleshing out the entirety of Samuel Pepys' life. Show Less
LibraryThing member ryn_books
I rarely read biographies but enjoyed this one so much I bought it for my shelves.
Her writing made the period he lived in come alive and clearly explained the context of his diary writings in terms of his career and life. My only wish is that more of his diary entries were in there, rather than
Her writing came across as well researched, and was very pleasant for a non-Pepys-expert to read. However friends who've studied him at tertiary level found this biography rewarding also.
Her writing made the period he lived in come alive and clearly explained the context of his diary writings in terms of his career and life. My only wish is that more of his diary entries were in there, rather than
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footnoted when relevant. Her writing came across as well researched, and was very pleasant for a non-Pepys-expert to read. However friends who've studied him at tertiary level found this biography rewarding also.
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LibraryThing member yarb
Tomalin makes an excellent case for Pepys as a literary genius, and for the diary's intrinsic worth as literature over and above its value as history. The subtitle "The Unequalled Self" is perfect; the book demonstrates how the diary really is a supremely high-fi transcription of person (complete
Inevitably the best part of this book is the diary years, when Pepys' energetic prose is on tap to supplement Tomalin's narrative. They're also Pepys' salad days, and his vigour is amazing to behold as he tears around London dispatching business and oysters in equal measure. His early life and his long (but not uneventful) post-diary existence seem kinda flat in comparison. But Tomalin is great at contextualising the people, places and events wihch Pepys describes, at setting the stage for the drama of his life. It's an essential companion to the diary and also, with its felicitous use of quotation, a great stand-alone read.
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with blind spots and self-deceptions) to page. The other great charm of this biography is its tenderness for Pepys the man, while not occulting his personal failings (many of which he owned). Although perhaps an affection for the man is a prerequisite to enjoying the diary? In any case, this is what I come to literature for — to feel how it is to be other — and Tomalin groks how Pepys provides this service par excellence to his posthumous readers.Inevitably the best part of this book is the diary years, when Pepys' energetic prose is on tap to supplement Tomalin's narrative. They're also Pepys' salad days, and his vigour is amazing to behold as he tears around London dispatching business and oysters in equal measure. His early life and his long (but not uneventful) post-diary existence seem kinda flat in comparison. But Tomalin is great at contextualising the people, places and events wihch Pepys describes, at setting the stage for the drama of his life. It's an essential companion to the diary and also, with its felicitous use of quotation, a great stand-alone read.
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Subjects
Awards
Costa Book Awards (Shortlist — Biography — 2002)
LA Times Book Prize (Finalist — Biography — 2002)
Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction (Shortlist — 2003)
Rose Mary Crawshay Prize (2003)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2002
Physical description
544 p.; 6.3 inches
ISBN
0670885681 / 9780670885688
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DDC/MDS
| 941.066092 |