Cart
Free Shipping in the UK
Proud to be B-Corp

The Curious World of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn Margaret Willes

The Curious World of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn By Margaret Willes

The Curious World of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn by Margaret Willes


£9.00
New RRP £11.99
Condition - Very Good
Only 2 left

The Curious World of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn Summary

The Curious World of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn by Margaret Willes

An intimate portrait of two pivotal Restoration figures during one of the most dramatic periods of English history

Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn are two of the most celebrated English diarists. They were also extraordinary men and close friends. This first full portrait of that friendship transforms our understanding of their times.

Pepys was earthy and shrewd, while Evelyn was a genteel aesthete, but both were drawn to intellectual pursuits. Brought together by their work to alleviate the plight of sailors caught up in the Dutch wars, they shared an inexhaustible curiosity for life and for the exotic. Willes explores their mutual interests-diary-keeping, science, travel, and a love of books-and their divergent enthusiasms, Pepys for theater and music, Evelyn for horticulture and garden design. Through the richly documented lives of two remarkable men, Willes revisits the history of London and of England in an age of regicide, revolution, fire, and plague to reveal it also as a time of enthralling possibility.

The Curious World of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn Reviews

Two centuries on, this scholarly and readable book brings the two men together again. The result, the biographical equivalent of a buddy film, is both entertaining and unexpectedly revealing about the extraordinary times they lived in.-Andrew Taylor, Times (London)

Ms. Willes brings Evelyn and Pepys fully and vibrantly to life. She makes the reader feel their foibles, their virtues, their pleasure and their pain; and on almost every page there is a detail to be thought about, recorded, relayed. It is a fitting tribute to two figures who so cherished curiosity-and who did so much to contribute to the curiosity of their age.-Economist



Willes's book is produced by Yale to its usual high standard, sumptuously illustrated and beautifully printed. Those connoisseurs of book production Pepys and Evelyn would have handled and read it with pleasure and added it to their own collections.-Richard Chartres, Church Times

Willes's engaging, lavishly illustrated book. . . works well, replacing chronology with a close-up history of the dynamic, turbulent world of Restoration England.-Barbara Taylor, Guardian

Our two most famous chroniclers, the prematurely curmudgeonly John Evelyn and debauched, upwardly mobile Samuel Pepys . . . This is an excellent book to give wider context on the lives and times of Pepys and Evelyn, and as a starting point to explore London life during this period.-Stephen Coulson, The Lady

Excellent and erudite.-Gerald Isaaman, Camden New Journal

Margaret Willes is an elegant and perceptive writer . . .This exercise in contrast and compare illuminates both.-Ysenda Maxtone Graham, Country Life

Excellent-William Baker, The Year's Work in English Studies

Margaret Willes paints an increasingly detailed - and always fascinating - picture of seventeenth-century London. Both Samuel Pepys's frank Diary and John Evelyn's anxiously tidied account of the first years of the Restoration remain vivid today. Willes's book is a 'must' for anyone interested in people, or London, or the growth of society after the King returned.-Liza Picard, author of Restoration London.


Glorious! Not only does Margaret Willes shed bright new light on two of the 17th century's most endearing characters, she recreates the worlds they inhabited with remarkable elegance and clarity.-Adrian Tinniswood, author of His Invention So Fertile: A Life of Christopher Wren.

This is a well-researched, illuminating and enjoyable book. Evelyn and Pepys lived through some of the most dramatic events in English history: regicide, plague, the Great Fire and revolution. These great diarists have left us unique and valuable insights into their world, when advances were being made in scientific thought, gardening, medicine, and international trade, despite the perils of the times. This book captures that energy and weaves details drawn from the writings of both men into a colourful and convincing panorama of seventeenth-century London.-Dr. Margarette Lincoln, Visiting Research Fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London and Curator Emeritus at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

About Margaret Willes

Margaret Willes, formerly publisher at the National Trust, is author of several books, including Reading Matters and The Gardens of the British Working Class. She lives in London.

Additional information

GOR009434988
9780300238686
0300238681
The Curious World of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn by Margaret Willes
Used - Very Good
Paperback
Yale University Press
20180828
304
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - The Curious World of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn