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liaweneryniel's review
5.0
I unabashedly one this book. Pepys writes and I'm transported to London in the 1660s.
At first it was a bit confusing with all the people and his nicknames for them but the name regster helped quite a lot with that^^
I cannot wait to read more about my favourite clerk and his life. He's speaking his mind and telling how things are. When he had to shit, when he cheated on his wife with whom. Who looks good (his wife is always the most gorgeous in his eyes, even when he compares her to the Queen and her daughters)
It's pretty interesting how he talks about religion and criticises sermons, although he was born and raised during a time where religion was the most important aspect in life.
Let's see what 1661 brings! And so to bed.
At first it was a bit confusing with all the people and his nicknames for them but the name regster helped quite a lot with that^^
I cannot wait to read more about my favourite clerk and his life. He's speaking his mind and telling how things are. When he had to shit, when he cheated on his wife with whom. Who looks good (his wife is always the most gorgeous in his eyes, even when he compares her to the Queen and her daughters)
It's pretty interesting how he talks about religion and criticises sermons, although he was born and raised during a time where religion was the most important aspect in life.
Let's see what 1661 brings! And so to bed.
darwin8u's review
4.0
"After, that I went to walk, and meeting Mrs. Lane of Westminster Hall, I took her to my Lord’s, and did give her a bottle of wine in the garden, where Mr. Fairbrother, of Cambridge, did come and found us, and drank with us. After that I took her to my house, where I was exceeding free in dallying with her, and she not unfree to take it."
- Diary of Samuel Pepys, Sunday 12 August 1660.
The first volume (1660, with 117000 words) and first year of Samuel Pepy's famous diary. There are so many things about this book to love. As a survey of the time and place it is amazing, as a history of the English Restoration it is fascinating, as a social commentary it is priceless. Pepys' honesty and transparency (it was written in a short-hand code that took 165 years to decipher, so...) is incredible. He writes about his dalliances, worries, money, health, religion, music, the arts, sex, drinking, shit, and family with an openness that is incredibly interesting. It was informal, but detailed with so many revelations that sometimes while reading I felt like I was invading a private space, a voyeur in another's life.
The arc of the 1st volume is the return of Charles II to England and the rise of Pepys' patron Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich. Pepys buys a new home, sees his finances improve as he rises as Lord Mountagu's secretary and is given the position of Clerk of the Acts.
My goal is now to finish the first three volumes in October (at least), read volumes 4-6 in November, and finish this wonderful beast in December.
Every time I read about Lord Sandwich, I thought of the SNL's party:
http://www.veoh.com/watch/v17990884DXWTS8At
Here are my other Pepys diary reviews:
Vol 2: 1661, 84,000 words
Vol 3: 1662, 105,000 words
Vol 4: 1663, 159,000 words
Vol 5: 1664, 132,000 words
Vol 6: 1665, 121,000 words
Vol 7: 1666, 151,000 words
Vol 8: 1667, 201,000 words
Vol 9: 1668, 128,000 words; 1669, 52,500 words
- Diary of Samuel Pepys, Sunday 12 August 1660.
The first volume (1660, with 117000 words) and first year of Samuel Pepy's famous diary. There are so many things about this book to love. As a survey of the time and place it is amazing, as a history of the English Restoration it is fascinating, as a social commentary it is priceless. Pepys' honesty and transparency (it was written in a short-hand code that took 165 years to decipher, so...) is incredible. He writes about his dalliances, worries, money, health, religion, music, the arts, sex, drinking, shit, and family with an openness that is incredibly interesting. It was informal, but detailed with so many revelations that sometimes while reading I felt like I was invading a private space, a voyeur in another's life.
The arc of the 1st volume is the return of Charles II to England and the rise of Pepys' patron Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich. Pepys buys a new home, sees his finances improve as he rises as Lord Mountagu's secretary and is given the position of Clerk of the Acts.
My goal is now to finish the first three volumes in October (at least), read volumes 4-6 in November, and finish this wonderful beast in December.
Every time I read about Lord Sandwich, I thought of the SNL's party:
http://www.veoh.com/watch/v17990884DXWTS8At
Here are my other Pepys diary reviews:
Vol 2: 1661, 84,000 words
Vol 3: 1662, 105,000 words
Vol 4: 1663, 159,000 words
Vol 5: 1664, 132,000 words
Vol 6: 1665, 121,000 words
Vol 7: 1666, 151,000 words
Vol 8: 1667, 201,000 words
Vol 9: 1668, 128,000 words; 1669, 52,500 words
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