Overview

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 Navy Office, it is an intimate portrait of life in seventeenth-century England, covering his professional and personal activities, including, famously, his love of music, theater, food, and wine, as well as 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 III presents the last three years of Pepys's diary. By now he was in his mid-thirties and confident in his ability to deal with differing political factions within the Navy Office.His affection for his wife Elizabeth grows ever stronger, despite wandering eyes, and he finds he is worth �6,000 and more--a considerable sum at that time for the son of a tailor who started with nothing. His concern with his eyesight grows, and it is with some regret that he stops writing his diary at the end of May 1669.

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9781094010670

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"""Not many listeners are so thrilled by the minutiae of seventeenth-century English life that they will want to devote more than 115 hours to listening to this classic journal--but those who stick it out will be well rewarded. Narrator Leighton Pugh's portrayal of Pepys is sometimes confiding, sometimes whiny, sometimes meditative about religion and politics, but always human. For ten years, while Pepys was on the margins of the great actions of his time, he recorded every day's events. From the discovery of a new public toilet to the restoration of King Charles II and the Great Fire of London, Pepys wrote down what he saw, and Pugh keeps it all lively. David Timson ably reads the historical introductions to each year."" -- ""AudioFile, combined review of volumes 1-3"" ""The editors have achieved the impossible! One can now read the Diary perfectly easily, month by month, year by year! here at last is a really learned edition where the learning is put at the disposal of the layman."" -- ""New Statesman"" ""The pleasure of Pepys--of reading him--is his own pleasure in experience! Pepys' Diary is the cheerful self-report, not of the man eminent in naval history, not of the historical witness, but of the unobjectionable hedonist."" -- ""Guardian (London)"" [The Diary of Samuel Pepys: A New and Complete Transcription is] the absolutely complete and unimprovably definitive edition...so exceptional that it can be said to have set new standards of scholarship."" -- ""Times (London)"""

Not many listeners are so thrilled by the minutiae of seventeenth-century English life that they will want to devote more than 115 hours to listening to this classic journal-but those who stick it out will be well rewarded. Narrator Leighton Pugh's portrayal of Pepys is sometimes confiding, sometimes whiny, sometimes meditative about religion and politics, but always human. For ten years, while Pepys was on the margins of the great actions of his time, he recorded every day's events. From the discovery of a new public toilet to the restoration of King Charles II and the Great Fire of London, Pepys wrote down what he saw, and Pugh keeps it all lively. David Timson ably reads the historical introductions to each year. -- AudioFile, combined review of volumes 1-3 The pleasure of Pepys-of reading him-is his own pleasure in experience! Pepys' Diary is the cheerful self-report, not of the man eminent in naval history, not of the historical witness, but of the unobjectionable hedonist. -- Guardian (London) The editors have achieved the impossible! One can now read the Diary perfectly easily, month by month, year by year! here at last is a really learned edition where the learning is put at the disposal of the layman. -- New Statesman [The Diary of Samuel Pepys: A New and Complete Transcription is] the absolutely complete and unimprovably definitive edition...so exceptional that it can be said to have set new standards of scholarship. -- Times (London)

Author Information

Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man. Although he had no maritime experience, he rose by patronage, hard work, and his talent for administration to be the Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under both King Charles II and 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 from 1660 until 1669 was first published in the nineteenth century and is one of the most important primary sources for history of 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. Robert Latham (1912-1995) was a Fellow and Pepys Librarian of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and co-editor of The Diary of Samuel Pepys: A New and Complete Transcription, published in 1970-1983. William Matthews (1900-1975), professor emeritus, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), was born in London. He earned his BA, MA, and PhD from the University of London, taught for one year at Bedford College, for another at the University of Wisconsin, and then came to UCLA to remain from 1939 until his retirement in 1972. He is best known as co-editor of The Diary of Samuel Pepys: A New and Complete Transcription, published in 1970-1983. Leighton Pugh trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art after studying modern languages at Queen's College, Oxford. He has narrated audiobooks for Penguin, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Random House, Hachette, and Quercus. His radio work includes the plays Murder by the Book and Scenes from Provincial Life for BBC Radio 4 and the voice of Heinrich von Kleist in the BBC Radio 3 documentary The Tragical Adventure of Heinrich von Kleist. From 2010-2011 he was in four productions at the National Theatre, including The Habit of Art and A Woman Killed with Kindness. David Timson is an actor, voice actor, and playwright. He is best known for his narration of The Complete Sherlock Holmes audiobook, in which he voices all 125 characters in the Holmes novels and short stories. His narrations have earned eight AudioFile Earphones Award.

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