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The Diary of Samuel Pepys book cover 1
The Diary of Samuel Pepys book cover 2
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The Diary of Samuel Pepys
Series · 11 books · 1719-2010

Books in series

The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol 1 book cover
#1

The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol 1

2010

Pepys diary complete for the year 1660
The Diary of Samuel Pepys 1661 book cover
#2

The Diary of Samuel Pepys 1661

1719

Pepys diary complete for the year 1661
The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol. III book cover
#3

The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol. III

1662

2009

Samuel Pepys is as much a paragon of literature as Chaucer and Shakespeare. His Diary is one of the principal sources for many aspects of the history of its period. In spite of its significance, all previous editions were inadequately edited and suffered from a number of omissions―until Robert Latham and William Matthews went back to the 300-year-old original manuscript and deciphered each passage and phrase, no matter how obscure or indiscreet. The Diary deals with some of the most dramatic events in English history. Pepys witnessed the London Fire, the Great Plague, the Restoration of Charles II, and the Dutch Wars. He was a patron of the arts, having himself composed many delightful songs and participated in the artistic life of London. His flair for gossip and detail reveals a portrait of the times that rivals the most swashbuckling and romantic historical novels. In none of the earlier versions was there a reliable, full text, with commentary and notation with any claim to completeness. This edition, first published in 1970, is the first in which the entire diary is printed with systematic comment. This is the only complete edition available; it is as close to Pepys’s original as possible.
The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol. IV book cover
#4

The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol. IV

1663

2003

Samuel Pepys is as much a paragon of literature as Chaucer and Shakespeare. His Diary is one of the principal sources for many aspects of the history of its period. In spite of its significance, all previous editions were inadequately edited and suffered from a number of omissions―until Robert Latham and William Matthews went back to the 300-year-old original manuscript and deciphered each passage and phrase, no matter how obscure or indiscreet. The Diary deals with some of the most dramatic events in English history. Pepys witnessed the London Fire, the Great Plague, the Restoration of Charles II, and the Dutch Wars. He was a patron of the arts, having himself composed many delightful songs and participated in the artistic life of London. His flair for gossip and detail reveals a portrait of the times that rivals the most swashbuckling and romantic historical novels. In none of the earlier versions was there a reliable, full text, with commentary and notation with any claim to completeness. This edition, first published in 1970, is the first in which the entire diary is printed with systematic comment. This is the only complete edition available; it is as close to Pepys’s original as possible.
The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol 5 book cover
#5

The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol 5

1971

The fifth volume of the complete Diary of Samuel Pepys in its most authoritative and acclaimed edition. This complete edition of the Diary of Samuel Pepys comprises eleven volumes – nine volumes of text and footnotes (with an introduction of 120 pages in Volume I), a tenth volume of commentary (The Companion) and an eleventh volume of Index. Each of the first eight volumes contains one whole calendar year of the diary, from January to December. The ninth volume runs from January 1668 to May 1669. The Diary was first published in abbreviated form in 1825. A succession of new editions, re-issues and selections, published in the Victorian ear, made the diary one of the best-known books, and Pepys one of the best-known figures, of English history. But in none of these versions – not even in the Wheatley, which for long stood as the standard edition – was there a reliable, still less a full text, and in none of them was there a commentary with any claim to completeness. This edition was in preparation for many years, and remains the first in which the entire diary is printed and in which an attempt has been made at systematic comment on it. The primary aim of the principal editors was to see that the diary was presented in a manner suitable to the historical and literary importance of its contents. At the same time they had in mind the interests of the wide public of English-speaking people to whom the diarist himself, rather than the importance of what he wrote, is what matters.
The Diary of Samuel Pepys 1665 book cover
#6

The Diary of Samuel Pepys 1665

2006

Pepys diary complete for the year 1665
The Diary of Samuel Pepys 1666 book cover
#7

The Diary of Samuel Pepys 1666

2006

Pepys diary complete for the year 1666
The Diary of Samuel Pepys 1667 book cover
#8

The Diary of Samuel Pepys 1667

2009

Pepys diary complete for the year 1667
The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol. IX book cover
#9

The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol. IX

1668-9

1976

Samuel Pepys is as much a paragon of literature as Chaucer and Shakespeare. His Diary is one of the principal sources for many aspects of the history of its period. In spite of its significance, all previous editions were inadequately edited and suffered from a number of omissions―until Robert Latham and William Matthews went back to the 300-year-old original manuscript and deciphered each passage and phrase, no matter how obscure or indiscreet. The Diary deals with some of the most dramatic events in English history. Pepys witnessed the London Fire, the Great Plague, the Restoration of Charles II, and the Dutch Wars. He was a patron of the arts, having himself composed many delightful songs and participated in the artistic life of London. His flair for gossip and detail reveals a portrait of the times that rivals the most swashbuckling and romantic historical novels. In none of the earlier versions was there a reliable, full text, with commentary and notation with any claim to completeness. This edition, first published in 1970, is the first in which the entire diary is printed with systematic comment. This is the only complete edition available; it is as close to Pepys’s original as possible.
The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol. 10 book cover
#10

The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol. 10

Companion

1982

The companion volume to the complete Diary of Samuel Pepys in its most authoritative and acclaimed edition. Samuel Pepys’s Diary was first published in abbreviated form in 1825. A succession of new versions brought out in the Victorian era made the Diary one of the best-known books and Pepys one of the best-known figures of English history. However, not until the publication of the Latham and Matthews edition was the Diary presented in its complete form, with a newly transcribed text and the benefit of a systematic commentary. The text of the Diary is in nine volumes, followed by this Companion and an Index. The edition has justly become established as the definitive version, hailed by The Times as ‘one of the glories of contemporary English publishing’ and by C. P. Snow as ‘a triumph of modern scholarship’. The Companion has been compiled and edited by Robert Latham, with specialist contributions from other scholars. The result of many years’ research, it is an essential adjunct to the Diary text. Over 1,700 entries, alphabetically arranged, fill in the background details about the people and places mentioned in the Diary. In addition there are longer articles on a wide range of subjects of particular relevance to Pepys and his period, such as the Great Fire, the Dutch Wars and the Plague. Others reflect Pepys’s lively interest in the arts, science and medicine, and his work for the Navy. In addition, many aspects of social history are covered in articles on, for example, dress, food, drink, taverns and travel. The book is completed by an extensive glossary, genealogical tables, a chronology and maps. The Companion will not only enrich every reader’s appreciation of Pepys’s magnificent Diary, but forms in its own right a fascinating and varied survey of seventeenth-century England.
The Diary of Samuel Pepys book cover
#11

The Diary of Samuel Pepys

Volume XI – Index

1982

The Index to the complete Diary of Samuel Pepys in its most authoritative and acclaimed edition. This renowned edition of The Diary of Samuel Pepys, edited by Robert Latham and William Matthews, is the first to present a newly transcribed text of the famous Diary and to equip it with a systematic commentary. Published in eleven volumes (nine of the Diary itself, followed by a Companion volume and this Index), it has justly become regarded as the definitive edition. The Index, compiled by Robert Latham, gives the essential key to the nine volumes of the Diary text, including the introduction and the footnotes. It makes it possible to retrieve a massive variety of information, whether the user wishes to trace successive references to individual people, places and events, or to follow through a general topic, or even to locate specific references and phrases from amongst the wealth of subject matter covered by the Diary. The entries are made readily accessible by the use of sub-headings, and are also valuably detailed – often reflecting the style of the Diary itself by borrowing from Pepys’s own phraseology. As a result the Index becomes more than merely functional, and offers opportunities for much enjoyable exploration. In many instances references are gathered together under important group headings that can be used to build up a composite picture of different aspects of seventeenth-century England. General topics such as books, dress, food, ships and taverns are afforded detailed entries which include, where necessary, editorial information to identify or elaborate on Pepys’s own references. The Index volume completes the set, and maintains the exemplary standards of this great work of scholarship, which was hailed by The Times as ‘one of the glories of contemporary English publishing’.

Author

Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys
Author · 25 books

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').

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