The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Volume 1: 1660-1663

by Samuel Pepys, Leighton Pugh (Narrator), David Timson (Narrator)

The Diary of Samuel Pepys is one of the most entertaining documents in English history. Written between 1660 and 1669, as Pepys was establishing himself as a key administrator in the naval office, it is an intimate portrait of life in 17th-century England covering his professional and personal activities, including, famously, his love of music, theatre, food, wine and his peccadilloes. This Naxos AudioBooks production is the world premiere recording of the diary in its entirety. It has been divided into three volumes. Volume I covers the opening years of the Restoration and introduces us to many of the key characters - family, government and royalty. Pepys was there when Charles II returned to England, and he lived through those opening years of the Stuart monarchy, with its revenge on the regicides. He also recorded the reopening of theatres, and how he relaxed from the Puritan way of life.

Genres: History, Memoir, Nonfiction, Audiobook

1 pages, Audio CD

Published January 6, 2015

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

[Cameron Rhoads · Rating 5 out of 5]

42.43 hours on Audible. An enjoyable listening of the diary of a preeminent Englishman during the Restoration years 1660-1663.

[Nick Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating in its detailed view of a life at the center of British politics in a revolutionary period (or, one might say, in its revolutionary rejection of the Cromwellian revolution). This was only volume 1 of (I believe) 7...

What I wish for, though, in reading Pepys, is a full companion volume with footnotes that spell out what is happening. While I love reading Pepys's immediate prose, for which of course he needs no such spelling out, I'd like to see what historians have made of the stormy events he alludes to. Does anyone know of such a companion volume?

[Julie Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never was interested in this book. Then The Rest is History podcast hosts agreed that it is the best way to see what life in the 1600s was like ... and somehow I found myself getting the audiobook of the first few years. So far, so good!

[Liawèn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finished year 1660, the rest in the new year but it’s of to a promising start 😊 I never knew that he was on board the ship that brought the king back to England 😄