The World of Samuel Pepys: A Pepys Anthology

Description

This anthology, containing extracts from Samual Pepys "Diary" is published to coincide with the 300th anniversary of the great diarist's death. Passages are collected together by subject, providing a fresh look at some of the themes that run through the massive complete work. Robert and Linnet Latham's presentation allows the reader to become absorbed in a single topic without interruption, often providing new insight into Pepys's private and public life. We see Pepys the man of fashion, the booklover, the musician, the theatre-goer, Pepys the husband and Pepys the public servant, at work and at leisure. From festivals such as Christmas and Twelfth Night, enjoyed with family and friends, to the great events such as the Fire and the Plague described so vividly in the "Diary", Pepys's life and times are revealed in all their richness and variety. We can read as continuous narrative some of the stories interwoven with daily events in the famous text, such as the long entangled saga of his affair with Deb Willet and the tale of the Dancing Master. For anyone unfamiliar with Pepys, this anthology should serve as a useful and enjoyable introduction, while lovers of the Diary should take pleasure in rediscovering favourite passages.

Robert Latham, cbe, ma, fba was born in Audley, Staffordshire. Educated at Cambridge, he was Reader in History in the University of London at Royal Holloway College from 1947 to 1968 when he went to the University of Toronto as Professor of History. From 1970 he was a Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, where, as Pepys Librarian until 1982, he had charge of the remarkable collection of books, prints and manuscripts which Pepys left to his old College. He devoted the greater part of his life to the study of the Diary, and died in January 1995. Linnet Latham, his wife, worked with her husband during the compilation of the Index and Companion volumes of the definitive edition of The Diary of Samuel Pepys.

'Let Pepys' Diary fall open at almost any page at random and he is joyously and compulsively quotable.' Observer