Such a rich source of original material would be a gift for any biographer but for Claire Tomalin they didn’t go far enough because they tell us nothing of Pepys’ childhood and education or, after the Restoration, his public disgrace and humiliation. We learn much about his daily domestic routine, (what he ate and drank, the books he amassed in his library, his suspicions of his wife’s relationship with a dance master) and about landmark events such as the Great Fire of London as well as his many encounters with Royalty and politicians. His first entry is dated Januwhen he was 26 but he ends his endeavours on when he was forced to stop writing because of an eye problem. While these journals tell us much about Pepys the man, they still cover only part of his 70-year life. His was a life that coincided with one of the most momentous periods of English history and he recorded his experiences in meticulous detail in leather-bound diaries writing every day for nine years. Plague, fire, civil war, treason, the fall of kings: Samuel Pepys experienced them all.
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