Diary of Samuel Pepys

by Samuel Pepys

This ebook version is the complete diary of Samuel Pepys, with additional information and notes included.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Classics, Biography, Memoir, 17th Century, Diary

2711 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 1669

About the author

Samuel Pepys was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament, who is now most famous for his diary. Although Pepys had no maritime experience, he rose by patronage, hard work and his talent for administration, to be the Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under King James II. His influence and reforms at the Admiralty were important in the early professionalization of the Royal Navy.

The detailed private diary he kept during 1660–1669 was first published in the nineteenth 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.

His surname is usually pronounced /'pi:ps/ ('peeps').

Reviews

[Petra X · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than I thought it would be. Not the endless, wordy school-stuff of Dickens. Pepys was an interesting man in interesting times who thought very highly of himself and his financial and sexual prowess.

[Darwin8u · Rating 5 out of 5]

"...and God forgive me, I do still see that my nature is not to be quite conquered, but will esteem pleasure above all things;"
- Samuel Pepys, Diary, 9 March 1666



Loved it. I'm not sure why I didn't rate/review the complete Pepys in 2015. An oversight, obviously. Here are my reviews of the individual books/years in the collection:

1. Vol. I: 1660 - Read October 17, 2015
2. Vol. II: 1661 - Read October 24, 2015
3. Vol. III: 1662 - Read October 30, 2015
4. Vol. IV: 1663 - Read November 5, 2015
5. Vol. V: 1664 - Read November 16, 2015
6. Vol. VI: 1665 - Read November 25, 2015
7. Vol. VII: 1666 - Read December 1, 2015
8. Vol. VIII: 1667 - Read December 13, 2015
9. Vol. IX: 1668-1669 - Read December 24, 2015

[Jason Koivu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dear Diary,

Read this rather interesting book comprised of the diary entries of one Mr. Samuel Pepys. In and of itself, the diary is not altogether engaging. It is however quite interesting for its descriptions of the Great Fire of 1666, which burned down much of London. Aside from that, what I found truly intriguing was the chance to glimpse a man's daily life as he lived it so many hundreds of years ago. A rare thing indeed. Granted Pepys was no ordinary man. He rubbed elbows with royalty, for godsake! Even so, Pepys, it turns out, was as real and flawed as any man (man as in male in one specific way...that randy dawg!). The addition of these admissions was like throwing the occasional firecracker in amongst the other somewhat mundane passages. Don't know that I would recommend The Diary of Samuel Pepys to everyone...but then again, diaries aren't written for mass consumption, are they?

[Brad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neither this nor Anne Frank's diary come anywhere near the diary of that round headed buffoon Karl Pilkington.

Compare:

Samuel Pepys on the Plague:

"It struck me very deep this afternoon going with a hackney coach from my Lord Treasurer's down Holborne, the coachman I found to drive easily and easily, at last stood still, and came down hardly able to stand, and told me that he was suddenly stuck very sick, and almost blind, he could not see. So I 'light and went into another coach with a sad heart for the poor man and trouble for myself lest he should have been struck with the plague, being at the end of town that I took him up; But God have mercy upon us all!"

Anne Frank on Collaboration:

"I don't believe that the big men, the politicians and the capitalists alone are guilty of the war. Oh, no, the little man is just as keen, otherwise the people of the world would have risen in revolt long ago! There is an urge and rage in people to destroy, to kill, to murder, and until all mankind, without exception, undergoes a great change, wars will be waged, everything that has been built up, cultivated and grown, will be destroyed and disfigured, after which mankind will have to begin all over again."

Karl Pilkington on Babies:

"You can be an ugly baby and everyone goes "awww innit nice?" There was some women in a cafe the other week that I was sat in, and she came up and she sat down with her mate and she was talkin' loudly goin' on about "oh the baby's lovely." They said it's got, er, lovely big eyes, er, really big hands and feet. Now that doesn't sound like a nice baby to me. I felt like sayin' it sounds like a frog. But I thought I don't know her, there's only so much you can say to a stranger. I don't know what kept me from sayin' it."

I think it is fairly clear which Diary wins the best ever sweepstakes.

[Stuart Townsend · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best diaries ever. This book is so honest its ridiculous - he is a complete cad, but so lovable. He tells it as he sees it, always from his own viewpoint, with such hypocrisy. This is also a hugely comical set of views - possibly the funniest being the diary entries about the pornographic book, which he heartily disapproves of, yet, when no one is around, he sneaks into the book sellers and buys it, with a plain cover, reads it quickly, then burns it, all under the justification of wanting to know what low-moral people do! I'm not sure I'd have wanted him as a friend, but a few drinks in the bar with him would be a hoot!

[Manybooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone probably knows of Samuel Pepys’ famous diaries (written in and also about 17th century England). But most of us (myself included) have probably only ever encountered highly abridged excerpts thereof (like what we read in grade ten English and which was less than two hundred pages in length if I recall correctly) and which usually seem to show show of Pepys’ diaries what the editor or editors have themselves considered worth reading and presenting, such as for example Samuel Pepys’ accounts of the Great London Plague and the Great Fire of London. And annoyingly, far too many of those abridged versions of Samuel Pepys’ diaries equally do not really point out that the book tomes in question do not in fact contain ALL of Pepys’ journals but just bits and pieces of SOME of them, which is alright if that is what you as a potential reader are actually looking for but not really alright if you in fact want the entire set of diaries and have kind of in my opinion been mislead by book titles claiming that they are complete when they truly are not. So therefore and in my opinion, if you want to read the entire textual body of Samuel Pepys’ diaries, you really need to make sure of that by checking the page numbers, for any edition that has less than around 2500 pages will definitely not be containing ALL of the journals (and for me, the best, the most portable and also the most reader friendly way of achieving this is to obtain Samuel Pepys’ diaries for the Kindle, such as this here e-book, such as Diary of Samuel Pepys - Complete).

Now with regard to the actual contents of Samuel Pepys’ diaries, I for one have truly loved reading them, and yes, every single page of those over 2700 page encountered in Diary of Samuel Pepys - Complete, with me often enjoying the meticulously detailed everyday bits and pieces of life, politics and culture of and in 17th century England even more (including Samuel Pepys writing about the mundanities of his daily work at the office) than his more exciting accounts of in particular the Great Fire of London. For indeed, I do like the minute, the personal and sometimes tend to find that Samuel Pepys’ writings and descriptions of in particular the Great Fire as though he is deliberately trying to render the story more passionate and action filled than necessary (not a huge deal, but I really and truly enjoy Pepys’ more sedate and simply descriptive parts of his diaries quite a bit more, and that I do have to smile whenever I read in Diary of Samuel Pepys - Complete that quintessential British diarist Samuel Pepys really despised the “new” fad of tea and was constantly hoping this would not last).

And finally, I think that the main reason why Samuel Pepys has managed to keep me engaged and totally so for 2700 pages is that I consider Pepys’ writing style readable, relatable and never boring, and that for me, both content and stylistic wise Diary of Samuel Pepys - Complete rates most definitely as five stars.

[Hon Lady Selene · Rating 5 out of 5]

the end, March 2021:

It's done.
It's finished.

There is a strange sense of melancholy in the air. I've been with Samuel for exactly one year. He is a gloriously interesting man, full of curiosity and courage, pains and defects that perhaps would not be acceptable in contemporary times but still, here we are, melancholic. These diaries were not written with intent to be read by anyone but I wonder... did he smirk imagining a future reader's possible consternation over being caught red-handed with (in) the maid?

I confess weakness in wishing I could meet him again, for the first time. I wish I could tell him I will forever laugh at the image of him burying his "Parmasan" in the garden to protect it from the Fire.

Beginnings, March 2020:
I’ve taken the plunge and started this big boy. I shall read it in one-go, preferably adding notes of personal interest here after each volume partition, as proper reviews would be quite superfluous.

Volume I: 1660, read 10th March 2020- 23d March 2020 and reviewed here.

Volume II: 1661, read 12th April 2020- 20th April 2020 and reviewed here.

Volume III: 1662, read 20th May 2020 - 5th June 2020 and reviewed here.

Volume IV: 1663, read 7th July- 23d July 2020 and reviewed here.

Volume V: 1664, read 12th August- 26th August 2020 and reviewed here.

Volume VI: 1665, read 9th October- 19th October 2020 and reviewed here.

Volume VII: 1666, read 17th January- 27th January 2021 and reviewed here.

Volume VIII: 1667, read 27th January- 10th February 2021 and reviewed here.

Volume IX: 1668/9, read 28th February- 12th March 2021 and reviewed here.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've long been familiar with the concept of Samuel Pepys diary and had read extracts in collections (e.g. The Assassin's Cloak: An Anthology of the World's Greatest Diarists). For no particular reason, I felt this was the right time to read it properly. This proved to be quite an undertaking and took longer than I expected, as even abridged the Penguin Classics edition includes more than 1000 pages in small text. Reading a diary is a very specific experience, with an intimacy to it that other formats does not have. Even rereading your own diary carries this sensation, I find, of keenly, perhaps voyeuristically, observing your past self. How much more dizzying and extraordinary to look back 450 years into the daily life of one Samuel Pepys, in which he records his activities both professional and personal. Inevitably diary entries can have a repetitive rhythm ('Up and to my office...' recurs), which becomes familiar and strengthens the sense of intimacy. I was left with many thoughts about Pepys and his time, which have taken me a while to sort through.

To start with the simplest, the diary is obviously a fascinating insight into Restoration England. Although Pepys was not a typical London-dweller of the 1660s, his aspiring upper-middle class status (anachronistic as that term is) allowed him to observe and interact with aristocracy, including the king, as well as his more impoverished rural relatives, sundry servants, and tradespeople. The years 1660 to 1669 that the diary covers were tumultuous, yet Pepys never ceased to record the small details that are of particular historical interest. What he ate, for example, which seemed to me remarkably meat-centric and lacking in fibre. Unless the meat and fish dishes are prepared with plenty of vegetables and legumes? I inferred that the regular use of 'physic' among Pepys' circle was a laxative or other purgative, necessary to deal with chronic constipation.

Mentions of medicine are in fact one of the most hair-raising elements of the diary. Regular illness was normal and I was interested in how the business of government proceeded nonetheless. If a colleague was too ill to attend the office, Pepys and others went to his bedside to discuss matters. Indeed, the lack of separation between public and private spaces is a notable feature, as this split really occurred in subsequent centuries. When Pepys referred to consulting a doctor, it was generally with an alarming remark like, 'the Doctor showed me the manner of eating Turpentine, which pleases me well, for it is with great ease'. I have only ever previously come across turpentine as a means of cleaning paintbrushes! Pepys was very lucky to survive an operation to remove a kidney stone prior to the start of the diary and celebrated the anniversary of this every year. He complained of doctors giving him contradictory advice and being unable to help with his increasing eyestrain.

Pepys began his diary in 1660, when he was in his late twenties and more interested in fun than work, specifically wine and plays. (I will discuss his interest in women later, as this is a more fraught topic.) The latter interest proves highly entertaining to the reader, who finds him distinctly unimpressed with most Shakespeare plays. As a critic, Pepys loved hyperbole: plays and other entertainments are often described as the best or very worst thing he had ever seen. He expressed some fondness for Hamlet and Macbeth ('pretty good'), but was scathing about Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Most of the plays he praised are entirely unknown to me, as I haven't studied this period. I wonder how many survived the centuries, let alone still get performed? Also in the theatre, Pepys namechecked Ned Kyniston as both hottest woman when playing female characters and hottest man when playing male characters. I remember him from the delightful 2004 movie Stage Beauty. Pepys also discussed a central topic of that film: Britain's first female stage actors. And Hugh Bonneville plays Samuel Pepys! I should rewatch it.

After taking a vow not to drink wine to excess or go to plays, Pepys became very diligent about his job, which involved a lot of accountancy. Yet he only learned the multiplication tables in 1662, from a sailor, at the age of nearly thirty! This struck me as extraordinary, as he was a highly educated man with a Cambridge degree. His work ethic was highly impressive: in summer he got up at 4 or 5am and often remained in the office until late at night. However it sounds like his lunch breaks were lengthy and that a good part of his job consisted of what we'd call meetings and networking, as well as letter-writing, the ancestor of emails. As a naval administrator of no specific job title, Pepys became well-respected and influential. Evidently, power in the 1660s was based on patronage by aristocracy and proximity to the king. Pepys welcomed the restoration, albeit more for the stability it offered than any seeming ideological attachment to the royal family. It is striking to subsequently observe him and his circle losing support for the king. Charles II appeared as much more interested in his mistresses and the theatre than governing. Worse, he didn't even delegate well, although he at least had the sense not to dismiss parliament completely and try to govern alone. Look how that worked out for his father. I was surprised to see Pepys reporting conversations in the late 1660s that were nostalgic for Oliver Cromwell and blaming the king, rather than just his aides, for the poor state of the country. In 1667, he reported an acquaintance saying, 'he expects that of necessity this Kingdom will fall back again to a commonwealth; and that other wise men are of the same mind...' I enjoyed Pepys' more acerbic comments about his social superiors:

Thence with Creede to hire a coach to carry us to Hide parke, today being a general muster of the King's Guards, horse and foot, yet methought all these gay men are not the soldiers that must do the King's business, it being such as these that lost the old King all he had and were beat by the most ordinary fellows that could be. This day in the Dukes chamber, there being a Roman story in the hangings and upon the standards written these four letters, SPQR, Sir G Carteret came to me to know what the meaning of those four letters were - which ignorance is not to be borne in a Privy Counsellor methinks, that a schoolboy should be whipt for not knowing.

Pepys often detailed what he discussed with others. Politics, music, and books were probably the most frequent topics. His 17th century life comes across as extremely social. His meals were almost always eaten with family, friends, and/or colleagues. Those three categories had porous boundaries. Servants were considered part of the family and the way Pepys treated them seems very different to the strict hierarchies of the 19th century. Singing and dancing were among Pepys' greatest joys; he loved music. It struck me how much he would have appreciated recorded and broadcast music, which made me grateful anew for the easy access we have to it today.

The nine years covered by the diary chronicle Pepys' upward social mobility and growing wealth. He reported how much money he had and how he chose to spend it, as he kept detailed accounts. He seemed to want money for security and prestige reasons, as he had no children to pass his estate onto. His luxuries were books, fine clothes, home refurbishments, and a carriage, as well as the occasional trip (including one to visit Stonehenge). Pepys actually thrived in his career during unstable times and by 1666 was personally delivering important updates about naval battles to the king.

In addition to the daily minutae, the reader is drawn in by reports of big events in the 1660s: the restoration of the monarchy, the great plague, the great fire of London, war with the Netherlands, and the sprouting of seeds of imperialism sown by Oliver Cromwell. It is impossible for me to read accounts of plagues without comparing them with the lockdown years of 2020-21. One striking similarity between 1665 and 2020 is the regular, closely watched, weekly reports of how many have died. Like Pepys, I noted these numbers down in my diary at the height of COVID-19. Pepys and his family were lucky enough to be untouched by the plague, although his doctor perished of it. The huge contrast between 17th and 21st century plagues is in the understanding of how it was spread. The 1665 plague appeared like a force of nature: a curfew and crude quarantine system were imposed, but there was no hope for treatments, let alone vaccinations. Londoners waited with dread for the numbers of deaths to start falling. The great fire was another terrible disaster for London. I hadn't realised that it lasted for so long - not weeks but months after it started, Pepys reported some areas still smouldering. I assume this is because Londoners already cooked and warmed their homes with coal, so there would have been vast numbers of coal cellars. With no fire service, those could have carried on burning for a long time.

The diary invites readers deep into both the public and private sides of Pepys' life. It is impossible to read without feeling proximity to him and reflexively judging him as a person. While any diarist knows that you choose what to record rather than putting every thought onto the page, Pepys does strike the reader as candid. He recorded many little indignities of life, like food poisoning and head lice. Yet he was coy in one single area: his very frequent sexual harassment of women and infidelity to his wife. These moments are briefly described in a mixture of French, Italian, and sometimes Spanish, which cannot obscure his meaning if you have more than a basic grasp of these languages:

After dinner I found occasion of sending him abroad; and then alone avec elle je tentoy à faire ce que je voudrais, et contra sa force je le faisoy, bien que pas a more contentment.

He appeared to take any opportunity to hit on women (mostly married), many of whom resisted. I think the nadir of his behaviour was the week when he complained of a sore finger because a woman bent it back while trying to fight him off, then got angry with his wife Elizabeth and gave her a black eye. Elizabeth, who he referred to exclusively by 'my wife' rather than her name in his diary, appears something of a mysterious and unhappy figure. That is, until the final year of it, when she caught him groping her maid and they had an intense and long-overdue argument. Prior to that, Pepys exhibited jealousy of any attention to her despite his constant lechery towards other men's wives. He reported arguments in which Elizabeth expressed frustration about being lonely and not having enough to do. At one point, she wrote him a letter detailing her complaints and not only did he refuse to read it for months, he then tore it up and burned it in front of her. His account of this and other disagreements isn't inflected with pride at subduing his wife, yet the only shame or regret at his behaviour towards her seemed shallow and transient. Even after the great upheaval of Elizabeth discovering his infidelity, he promised to change and initially might even have meant to, but rapidly fell back into his old habits. Multiple promises to never see the maid again were broken just as soon as he got the opportunity to do so. In short, Pepys was a terrible husband in many ways and treated women very badly. His morality has the fascinating inconsistency that everyone tends to, taken to a cruel extreme. He was quick to condemn women for immodest behaviour, or aristocrats at court for wasting time and money on their mistresses, or anyone who spoke in a manner he considers lewd. Yet he continually wrote of trying to have sex with any woman who didn't manage to escape quickly enough. I think the episode of the naughty French novel is a revealing insight into his elastic sensibilities:

Thence away to the Strand to my bookseller's, and there stayed an hour and bought that idle, roguish book, L'escolle des Filles; which I have bought in plain binding (avoiding the buying of it better bound) because I resolve, as soon as I have read it, to burn it, that it may not stand in the list of books, nor among them, to disgrace them should it be found. [...]

[Next day] Lords day. Up, and at my chamber all the morning and the office, doing business and also reading a little of L'escolle des Filles, which is a mighty lewd book, but yet not amiss for a sober man once to read over to inform himself in the villainy of the world. [...] We sang till almost night, and drank my good store of wine; and then they parted and I to my chamber, where I did read through L'escolle des Filles; and after I had done it, I burned it, that it might not be among my books to my shame; and so at night to supper and then to bed.

You can read the whole book here if you care to. Pepys' shame seems very much about other people's perceptions, rather than his own desires. His accounts of harassing or raping women are obviously not pleasant. I never considered giving up on the diary, though, as it is an incredibly rewarding historic document. Indeed, it seems better that he included this behaviour for the historical record, rather than pretending in the relative privacy of his own diary to be a model husband and only respectful towards women. His writing exhibits great intelligence and insight, but all too often then as now that can be accompanied by terrible treatment of others (often women). Intelligence can so easily be employed to rationalise bad choices. Yet Pepys also wrote from a perspective that seems at times remarkably wise; that life is about enjoying the pleasures of music, dancing, food, and conversation while you can, and that we should be grateful for those joys.

Finally, reading Samuel Pepys' diary invites the reader to think about diary-writing in general. How close is the voice of the diary to that of the writer? Why are they writing and for whom? How honest and frank can they be in writing? I found myself wondering whether Pepys ever imagined that his diaries might survive and be read long after his death. He wrote them in shorthand, but not in a code that would have made them impossible for others to understand. The diary was abandoned in 1669 when deteriorating eyesight made it too painful to keep. Pepys had to start dictating his letters, but was not willing to dictate such a personal record. I can see how he spoiled his vision, by frequently writing letters and reading after dark by (at best) candlelight.

The postscript to the Penguin Classics edition expresses regrets that his diary doesn't cover subsequent events, including a lot of political upheaval that he was involved in. Conversely, how lucky we are that these diaries survived, as well as how lucky we are to live in the era of sight correction. It seems somehow fitting that the same day I finished reading Pepys' diary, an optometrist told me that my sight has deteriorated again and I need a stronger glasses prescription. I found the diary of Samuel Pepys informative, thought-provoking, funny, and shocking by turns. At times I felt the dizzying distance of history (crude medicine; absent infrastructure) and at others the proximity of unchanging humanity (arguments with family; happy dinners with friends). It is a richly rewarding book. Now I would like to reread Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson, in which Pepys is a main character.

[ddjiii · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's a reason why this simple book, just a guys's diary from the late 1600's, is one of the classics of world literature. More than almost any other book I can think of, Pepys really gives you a powerful feeling of what it would be like to live in another time. His accounts of his everyday life are tremendously evocative, and even though he had good material (the great London fire, the Glorious Revolution, war with the Dutch) it's his description of hanging out in coffeehouses playing madrigals, his complaints about his wife and his gallstones, his petty political career ("ran into the King in the park today" - London apparently wasn't a big town then...) that stay with you. Highly recommended.

[Paul H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unique among primary historical sources (at least that I've found) insofar as it covers an entire decade in fine detail, and then it has the added bonus of being (1) extremely candid, because it was written in cryptographic shorthand, (2) historically interesting, insofar as Pepys was a high government official, (3) legitimately well-written, and finally (4) the author himself is both intentionally and unintentionally hilarious, and his life is quite entertaining.

The most curious thing is that his concerns are, ultimately, very similar to those encountered by the average married man in his late twenties and early thirties (even today) . . . trying to balance home life and work life, perplexed about how to discipline his son, working through minor marital issues, getting back on the wagon in terms of quitting alcohol/partying, etc.

[Lynne King · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've just been looking at another friend's books and came across this one. I knew about this when I was twenty-two as I was with someone who just loved this work and he used to read it to me. I recall that it was very old-fashioned in its style. Well, of course, it would be as it was written in 1660! Also the detail was remarkable and the most inane statements sounded so interesting.

I wonder how I would like it now? Did I just love it because the individual concerned, who read it to me, was such a wonderful raconteur?

[Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this one in the summer of 1964. Very much enjoyed reading Pepys' reflections on life in London and his day to day concerns at the Admiralty, in Parliament and about town during the 1660s. I still vaguely recall his descriptions of the plague and the great fire of London, his wry comments on married life and his favorite closing line to his diary entries, "...and so to bed." A pleasant and entertaining read.

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book surprisingly readable for a diary. Pepys' attention to detail, and accessible writing style kept me entertained as I learned about a period in history that I wasn't very well acquainted with before this.

I loved the detail that he buried his Parmesan in the back yard before fleeing his house during the great fire of London. In fact, Pepys' attention to detail is part of what makes this book such a good read, and a wealth of information for historians. His description of seeing people and pigeons waiting too long to feel their houses is heart-wrenching.

I read this book in audiobook format.

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eigentlich interessant, dass man bei so viel Gleichförmigkeit des Tagesablaufs sich doch gut unterhalten fühlt und immer wieder gespannt dabei bleibt. Pepys hat nichts Weltbewegendes zu berichten, kennt keine Persönlichkeiten, die uns heute noch bewegen würden, erlebt keine Abenteuer, gibt aber einen detailreichen und faszinierenden Einblick in die Erlebniswelt und den Tagesablauf eines höheren bürgerlichen Beamten im 17. Jahrhundert. Dabei ist es faszinierend zu beobachten, wie er, hin und her gerissen zwischen Loyalität zum König, dem er treu dienen möchte, und seinem eigenen Vorteil, immer wieder sein Gewissen beruhigen kann: Von Jahr zu Jahr steigt sein "Wert" (in Pfund) und daraus ersieht er Gottes Gnade.
Zum Zeitkolorit gehören auch die kleinen Widrigkeiten mit dem Gesinde, die Auseinandersetzungen mit seiner Frau, der nicht ein Zehntel des Geldes für Garderobe und Luxus zugestanden wird, die sich Samuel selbst gönnt, die Beschreibungen der Wäschewechsel und des Straßenschmutzes, der Art mit anderen gemeinsam in einem Bett zu übernachten usw. In welchem Roman kann man sonst lesen, dass sich der "Held" regelmäßig erkältet, wenn er sich mal die Füße wäscht? Und dann ist da noch die Sorge um das Geld, das sich ständig vermehrt und einen sicheren Platz braucht. Was machen mit Goldstücken, wenn es keine Bankdepots gibt? Man vergräbt sie im Park, versteckt die Truhen unter altem Gerümpel im letzten Keller, und hat immer Angst, dass jemand dahinter kommt, das Haus abbrennen könnte usw. Von Bränden wird überhaupt oft berichtet; insonderheit sind die Schilderungen des "großen Brandes von London" interessant. Man sieht förmlich die Menschen ihre Häuser ausräumen und um Lastkähne kämpfen, die ihre Habe in Sicherheit bringen sollen. Freilich verlieren die Bürger der City nicht viel, man hört nicht einmal von Insolvenzen (wie Pepys anmerkt), denn nach dem Brand steigen die Immobilienpreise so exorbitant, dass sich die Grundstücksbesitzer schnell wieder gesund stoßen. Für die Stadtarmen trifft das nicht zu und es mehren sich Schilderungen der Bettelei und von Meutereien. Letzteres insonderheit, als Matrosen zur Kriegsflotte gepresst wurden, für die es keinen Lohn gibt. Nach der englischen Niederlage gegen die Holländer fordern die armen Kerle ihr Geld, bekommen aber nur Knüppel und Säbelhiebe der Bürgerwehr und der Armee. Inzwischen prasst der König mit seiner Mätresse und kümmert sich herzlich wenig um Politik. Pepys sieht und beschreibt das Unrecht, hat auch Mitleid, hofft gleichzeitig aber doch auf ein hartes und erfolgreiches Durchgreifen der Ordnungskräfte. Die Angst um den eigenen Besitz lässt keine "Solidarität" zu. Und so ist er auch nicht zimperlich, wenn es darum geht, Pöstchen oder Aufträge gegen "Geschenke" zu vergeben und sich für die Ehemänner der Damen zu verwenden, die ihm im Amt, in der Bierschänke oder bei sich zu Hause zu Willen sind. Rührend komisch die Beschreibungen der sexuellen Übergriffe in einem Gemisch aus Latein, Französisch und Spanisch, was wohl verhindern soll, dass seine Frau es versteht. Trotzdem kommt sie ihm auf die Schliche, was regelmäßig zu Streit (und religiös-moralischer Zerknirschung) führt, an der Sache aber nichts ändert. Wenn sich sein "Mädchen" (er musste sie entlassen, weil seine Frau die beiden in heftiger Umarmung und mit seinen Händen unter ihrem Rock erwischte) züchtig der Zudringlichkeiten erwehrt, hofft Samuel inständig, sie möge "ehrbar" bleiben, und wünscht sich gleichzeitig "ihre Jungfräulichkeit" zu gewinnen. Davon ab hat er Gelegenheit genug, "das Ding" anzufassen, sich zu wälzen und zu grabschen oder eben alles zu tun "was ich voudrais". ;-) Da arbeitet er sich vom Bordell bis in höchste Kreise hoch, verschmäht die Schauspielerinnen nicht und eben auch nicht die Seemannsfrauen (er arbeitet beim Marine- Amt).
Das ist so lebendig, so detailreich und gleichzeitig so wenig literarisch stilisiert geschildert, dass man sich im London um 1665 heimisch fühlt. Das umso mehr, als der Abstand zu heute in Vielem geringer ist, als man glaubt: Von den Immobilienspekulationen und der wachsenden Schere zwischen Arm und Reich in Krisenzeiten ware schon die Rede. Ein anderes Moment ist die Sehnsucht nach der eigenen Kutsche und die Beobachtung, dass die großen Sechsspänner des Adels Stockungen im Verkehr machen, der wegen der vielen Mietkutschen erheblich gewesen sein muss. Wer denkt da nicht an den SUV als Statussymbol, an Staus in unseren Innenstädten und an das Übel, auch mit dem Taxi nicht immer schneller als zu Fuß zu sein? Auch Pepys bekommt oft keine Mietkutsche und muss zu Fuß durch Regen und Schmutz nach Hause laufen. Des Öfteren wird von "im Taxi vergessenen Gegenständen" berichtet und es kommt vor, dass die Tür aufgerissen und seiner Frau etwas entwendet wird. Ohnehin waren die Zeiten unsicher, wie man sich denken kann. Mord und Totschlag kommen ebenso vor wie Diebereien und andere Gaunereien und neben dem Theater sind Hinrichtungen eine beliebte Abwechslung, für die man sich gute Plätze sichert (notfalls das Stehen auf den Speichen eines Wagens, um über die Köpfe der anderen hinweg sehen zu können).
Das sind alles nur Impressionen, die aber vielleicht erklären können, woher die Faszination dieser fremden und doch auch vertrauten Welt gegenüber stammt. Der Sozial- oder England- Historiker wird die Schilderungen der Krönungsfeierlichkeiten und der Probleme mit der Flotte, die Ereignisse um den Holländischen Krieg etc. spannend finden; Literaturwissenschaftler können einen Einblick in zeitgenössische Wertungen von Theateraufführungen (Shakespeare kommt meist nicht gut weg- nur am Ende wird "Hamlet" überschwänglich gelobt!) bekommen usw. usf. Das alles verblasst jedoch gegenüber dem einfachen Vergnügen, einem Zeitgenossen der vergangenen Jahre bei seinen alltäglichen Verrichtungen hautnah über die Schultern sehen zu können. Wer viel Zeit mitbringen will, wird mit der Faszination des Eintauchens in eine authentische Vergangenheit belohnt. Das rechtfertigt den hohen Stellenwert dieses Tagebuchs auch als historisches Dokument.

[Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pepys loathed a newfangled drink called tea, disliked Shakespearean plays (except for Romeo and Juliet), and didn’t trust the men who spent hours teaching his wife dancing, singing and painting. He adored his wife Lizzie, Mrs Lane (who’s husband was often at sea), Mrs Knepp the actress, and Deb Willet his maid (ultimately fired at his wife’s insistence). His manservant Will is not above the odd gentle dig at the foibles of his boss, and gives the occasional blunt lecture about his philandering. The section on the great fire of London is one of the most moving, with unforgettable scenes including the King himself in the streets helping to fight the flames. An excellent cast make this a wonderful listening experience.

[Marks54 · Rating 5 out of 5]

When the Pepys Diary is read, it is most often in the form of an abridged selection of highly interesting passages. That is OK, since the unabridged diary is long (10 years, 1,000,000 words) and consists of numerous stretches where not much seems to happen. But reading abridged highlights begs the question of how this work of daily short entries by a 27 year old junior bureaucrat in Restoration England come to be one of the primary sources for the details of daily life at that time and one of the most famous diaries ever. With this in mind, I had recently finished Peter Ackroyd's history of the Civil War and the Restoration and wanted to build on that by reading two of the great texts produced during that period - Leviathan and the Pepys Diary. I completed Leviathan recently and so turned from Hobbes to Pepys.

Why is the Diary so memorable?

To start with, Pepys lived in interesting times. The Civil War had ended and Charles II was reclaiming his throne - and some scores were going to be settled. Life goes on, of course, and other events intervene. In the span of little more than a year, Pepys is a direct witness to: the Bubonic Plague, a war with the Dutch that does not end well, and the Great Fire of London. In the midst of this, Pepys keeps score and notes how lots of people die, lots of property is lost, and many reputations and fortunes are ruined. What would anyone feel like having to go to work is such circumstances?

Pepys is a clerk in the Navy Office and seems adept at keeping accounts and crafting persuasive common sense explanations. He keeps his head down about politics and tries to maintain loyalty for his patron, Lord Sandwich. He is prudent, however, and will faithfully provide support until circumstances change. This is the orientation that starts Pepys on his way to the bureaucratic/administrative hall of fame - be competent, but don't make waves and don't back losers. He would be at home in 21st century Chicago.

Pepys also knows how to network. He travels throughout the London area by coach or barge and appears to know everyone who matters. He also has a good memory for past favors and skeleton burial sites. This networking takes him to plays and concerts on a continuing basis - several are seen multiple times. It is sometimes hard to know what to make of this cultural immersion, since it does not translate into the best of writing styles in the Diary. Pepys is highly curious of science and invention and would hang with the venture capitalists today. In his day, it was the Royal Society of which he was a key member.

When he writes about his work, there is much to think about regarding the redesign of the Navy, the efficient operation of the administrative apparatus, and the maintenance of good relations with governance bodies. For one example, trying to piece together Pepys' position on corruption is intriguing. On the one hand, he wanted to clear up past abuses and standardize practice to ensure that the interests of the King were served. On the other hand, he was not averse to what we would call today "facilitating payments" and even notes how he looks the other way when opening some mail so that he can truthfully claim to have not seen the money in that mail. The tensions and issues are largely the same as they are today regarding governance and ethics, even if the institutional situations have changed.

Pepys's behaviors towards women would be frowned upon today and would likely land him in disgrace and jail. He is a serial adulterer, sexual harasser, and not a very nice person to ride with in a dark coach if you are an attractive female (married or unmarried). He records many of his conquests to a degree that would be unthinkable today, outside of a police drama on TV. He also seems to fight with his wife on a fairly continual basis. Despite him frequently behaving like a lousy person (literally towards the end), he is also high educated and an intense reader whose library was donated to Cambridge after his death.

Finally, at many points during the diary I was led to reflect how how different Restoration London was from what I am used to today. There isnNo electricity or electric lights. There is no inside plumbing and little suggestion that frequent bathing is common. The urban infrastructure that we take for granted did not exist. Life expectancies must have been about half of what they are today. In such conditions, it is fascinating to see how a thirty year college grad, who today would be pursuing additional grad school or following a partnership tournament at some firm, ended up being one of the founder of modern administration and a principal witness to the building of modern England.

This only scratches the surface of this rich book, although I will admit it is a bit long. I think I am going to start the recent Pepys bio by Claire Tomalin to fill in the holes but it was good to start with the book.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished at last. 2561 pages. Samuel Pepys recorded his private thoughts (in shorthand and occasionally code) from 1660, months before the Restoration of Charles II to 1669, when failing eyes rendered the effort impossible. During that time, Pepys rose from being a minor functionary of Sir Edward Montagu [later Earl of Sandwich] to a bureaucratic force in the English Navy. Along the way he records his very human reaction to the Restoration, the Great Plague, the London Fire--he reported what we would recognize as Post Traumatic Shock Syndrome months after the fire--and the loss of a war with the Dutch. He was a great reader, book collector, observer and writer. (Undoubtedly, a candidate for GoodReads membership.)

Most striking were his activities and observations. A believer, he made written vows of activities to be avoided, then did them--and recorded his failure, his paying the forfeit, and his intention to not stray again. Despite early proof that a life of going to plays and over drinking was not just bad but dangerous (Pepys underwent bladder stone surgery in 1657, without anesthetic remember, and was seldom without pain thereafter), Pepys lived the good life. In the later years he averaged a play a day. He was insanely jealous of his wife, yet he indulged in multiple affairs. He decried the waste of the regime, but kept on the cutting edge of fashion--whether it be periwigs, waistcoats, interior decorating or coaches. (The reading is repetitive and obscure but vivid.)

His epigrams indicate how little has changed in the last 350 years."The whole world is at work blaming one another." "Treachery? I could wish … but we are ruined by folly and neglect." "There is nothing like silence; it become seldom any wrong to a man to say nothing." "How much greater the number of Councilors … is the more confused is of their council." "He that will not stop for a pin, will never be worth a pound." "…which is to shut the door after the horse is stole." "[to be a] beggar [is] a just judgment upon people that do like to live so much beyond themselves in housekeeping and vanity." "As she brews, let her bake." "…the end for which we live, to have such a merry day once or twice in a man's life."

Samuel Pepys had more than a few merry days mixed in with his folly and neglect.

The language is difficult, but partly offset by the helpful, but quaint explanatory notes of 1896. He has been my companion for many months. I'll miss him.

A very good read.

[David K. Glidden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pepys diary is always an insight into the lives of the wealthy and well connected. And this abridged volume has a brilliant introduction by Robert Louis
Stevenson. But I read Pepys again now for his diary entries of the London plague of 1665 and the London Fire of 1666. The former was informative, while the entries on the Fire were fairly superficial though worth reading.

[Avis Black · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pepys is one of those classic writers I've made more than one attempt at, but despite the usefulness of his diaries as social history and commentary, he's too repugnant to bother with for very long.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found my way to this diary in an odd way. My book club chose The Journal of Mrs Pepys, the fiction journal of the wife of the famous diarist, as its selection for January of 2022. I had already read that book in 2021, so I decided to read this book, the actual diary kept by a civil servant in England during the 1660s.

I can see why so many have been compelled to read this book over the many years of its existence. Pepys tells about not only the big events of his day---the Restoration, the Second Dutch War, the Great Plague of London, the Great Fire of London---but he also speaks of the intimate details of his life.

[Bob Schnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

If Samuel Pepys knew when he was writing his private journal that people 400 years in the future would be reading it, would he have been so revealing? Did he really want future generations to know of his fondness (and shame) for dirty books, wine and fondling women's breasts? Probably not, but thank goodness he didn't edit himself because his diary really brings a human element to history, specifically late 17th century Britain.

It is one thing to learn in a textbook of the plague or a city ravaged by fire, and quite another to see it through the eyes of someone who was there. We learn from Mr. Pepys how news was spread by word of mouth (often erroneously), how much items cost, what the theater was like when Shakespeare was still new and how people reacted to crises. We also feel his shame, pride, lust and despair through his various actions and responses to the events happening around him. In all, we get to know him, his city and his time better than any professor or history text could teach.

[Deborah Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a meticulously kept historical account of its time, the diary is incomparably valuable, but as a record of its author's vanity, greed, snobbery, misogyny, philandering, and ridiculousness, it is priceless! This would be a guilty pleasure were it not for the fact that Pepys had a front row seat for most of the political and newsworthy events of the day. If only every diary were as historically and psychologically intriguing.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dancing to the diary of Samuel Pepys – in pictures

[Grace Tierney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book for three reasons. It's on the 501 books to read before you die list (which I'm using as a reading list), it's a diary which is format I enjoy, the 1660s are an interesting period of English history, especially in London.

However, I didn't realise how long it was until I spotted a hardback set (I read in ebook format) and realised it's a three volume set. It took me a couple of months to read, reading nearly everyday except for one week.

So, was it worth the effort? Yes.

I can see how it's vital for researchers of the period as he name drops constantly and gives great detail. He moved in pretty high society and was close to many key events - restoration of Charles II after Cromwell and the Roundheads, great fire of London, naval battles with the Dutch, French, Algerians and the moors.

I loved the more domestic details of his life with his wife, his career ambitions, his friends. I loved the little bits of science too as he was a member of the royal institute and friends with Robert Boyle (Boyle's Law). Having spent the last two months in his company (ten years in his case) I will miss Samuel and will take myself to Wikipedia to find out how he fared after his failing eyesight (at age 37 and before reading glasses had been invented) forced him to stop keeping a diary.

Was every entry enthralling? No, but this diary is rarely boring and is certainly rare enough to merit the attention of anyone interested in history.

[ValeReads Kyriosity · Rating 2 out of 5]

My recent rewatch of 84 Charing Cross Road reminded me that Pepys's diary was on my bucket list, but, unlike Helene Hanff, I was quite content with this four-hour abridgement. I did Boswell's Johnson unabridged, but a hundred and ten hours of Pepys sounds about as appealing as a case of intestinal parasites. His first-hand accounts of historical events—the restoration of Charles II, the Plague, and especially the Great Fire—are certainly worthwhile, but the man himself had the morals of an alley cat. There wasn't a woman of any class or station he wasn't content to mess around with, and the episodes included in this edition were more than enough for me. I assume modern print editions include translations of the foreign-language passages, so I was disappointed that they didn't bother to provide that in the audio...until I realized that those were the bits with all the salacious details of his sexual dalliances, so I recalibrated to gratitude for the linguistic obfuscation. I was also grateful for having burned all of my journals eleven years ago, because nobody needs to imbibe that quantity of anybody else's self-involvement.

Narrator was good.

[Hol]

This was one of my happiest-ever reading experiences. I drew it out over several months, taking a break before the last fifty pages and after various big events--the Plague, the Great Fire. But even there, the most personal observations were the most vivid to me: now when I see a reference to the Fire of London I will picture Pepys on hands and knees in his backyard, burying his "Parmasan" cheese and bottled wines before taking flight from the city.

The edition I read was the first one published (in 1825). At 800+ pages, it includes about a quarter of the complete diary but omits any reference to Pepys's many extramarital liaisons and uses footnotes only for the life dates and genealogy of people mentioned in the entries. So I know I am missing out on some aspects of the original and may eventually seek out an alternative edition. I was sorry when this one ended.

[Avril · Rating 5 out of 5]

Samuel Pepys sexually assaulted every woman he could - and wrote about his attempts in his diary, though he did put them into a code of French, Spanish and Italian words. When his wife caught him fondling one of their servants and sent her away, Pepys wrote that he wished he could take ‘her maidenhead’ and in fact tried to arrange meetings with her, despite the fact that his wife refused to allow him to roam London alone and did her best to make sure he was always accompanied. He’s just dreadful, and yet after reading over 1000 pages of his diary I feel a great deal of affection for him. If he lived today I’d want him to be arrested and imprisoned, but I never wanted to put his diary down in disgust. I can’t explain it. Maybe it’s because reading the diary I have been forced to see the world through his eyes? At any rate, I’ve had so much fun reading it.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this delicious (although some might call tediously boring) diary during my maternity leave with my first born son. It allows you to be a fly on the wall during the 17th Century London, complete with a wacky guy telling his story. His details of expenses for household items is really interesting, as his views of women. What fun!

[Page · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read selections from this in high school and was very happy to receive the three volume complete edition in my 20s. It changed my whole view of what history was about (i.e. not just important dates and wars) and validated my own diary-keeping.

[Gintautas Ivanickas · Rating 4 out of 5]

„Atsikėliau ir apsivilkau spalvoto šilko liemenę – puikus rūbas, o taip pat naują sugarbanotą peruką, Pirkau jį gana seniai, bet vis nesiryždavau užsidėti, nes, kai jį pirkau, Vestminsteryje siautė maras. Įdomu, kokia bus perukų mada, kai maras baigsis, juk dabar niekas jų neperka, bijodamas užsikrėsti: sklinda gandai, kad perukų gamybai naudojami nuo maro mirusių žmonių plaukai. Po pietų – upe į Grinvičą, kur manęs nenorėjo įleisti, galvodami, kad aš iš Londono ir esu vaikštantis užkratas, kol nepasakiau jiems, kas aš ir iš kur...“
Taip įdomiai ir neplanuotai sutapo, kad vienu metu lygiagrečiai skaičiau Samuelio Pepys‘o dienoraščius ir grožinę knygą, kurioje vienas pagrindinių (na, ne pačių pačių pagrindinių, bet vis tiek) veikėjų buvo... Pepys. Reik pastebėt, kad įspūdį tai sustiprino. O ir patys dienoraščiai – įdomūs. Pepys savo akimis regėjo Kromvelio sukilimą, Restauraciją, marą, didįjį Londono gaisrą... Smalsu pažvelgti į visa tai amžininko akimis.
Ir tikrai, iš tos perspektyvos viskas atrodo šiek tiek kitaip. Kad ir gaisras – didysis, žinoma, bet šiaip jau Londonas degė ne sykį, tai žmonės mažumėlę įpratę. Ir pirma, ką daro – rūpinasi, kaip išsaugoti tai, kas brangu. Pavyzdžiui, užkasdami žemėn. „Seras Battenas, nežinodamas, kur slėpti vyną, iškasė savo sode duobę ir sudėjo butelius į ją; aš gi, pasinaudodamas galimybe, sudėjau ten pat savo popierius, kuriuos nė nenutuokiau, kur dar dėti. Vakare seras Pennas ir aš iškasėme dar vieną duobę ir paslėpėme ten mudviejų vyną, o aš nuleidau ten dar ir parmezano sūrį, vyną ir kitus daiktus.“
Žodžiu, besidomintiems laikotarpiu – visai naudingas skaitinys. Ir kaipo tokiam – duosiu keturis iš penkių. Nors, tiesą sakant, net neįsivaizduoju, ko reikėtų penketui. Bet pasilieku atsargai – o gal dar kokie nors atsiminimai šituos permuš.