Book Review: "English Diarists: Evelyn & Pepys" by Margaret Willy

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This slim volume, included in the "Writers and Their Work" series from the 1960's, gives a nice overview of the Seventeenth century diarists John Evelyn and Samuel Pepys, and their lives in London.

Willy writes a nice introduction about why men and women used to write diaries, especially when they were meant for no one else's eyes (Pepys wrote in shorthand and encryption that wasn't deciphered until the nineteenth century). Evelyn and Pepys knew each other, and sometimes mentioned each other in their respective diaries. Their lives are summarized after the introduction, but more attention is paid to what the men wrote about their lives, as opposed to just reciting dates and names. Pepys seems to be the most entertaining of the two, but his philandering and vanity hardly put him on a pedestal. The Great London Fire of 1666 was observed by both men, as well as the Plague, and the English Civil War. Willy is correct, Pepys' minutiae about his casual life is fascinating- trashing performances of Shakespeare's plays, and seeing the untimely deaths of relations' children. On the other hand, he attends public executions, and constantly seemed to be on the prowl, bedding many women he was not married to.

Although this was first published in 1963, there is an excellent bibliography about both men in the back of the book. Pepys wrote about the Plague almost three hundred years ago, but he could be talking about pandemics of today:

"Commenting on the callousness bred of panic, he observed 'this disease making us more cruel to one another than . . . to dogs'. After weeks at his post in a city 'distressed and forsaken', with grass growing in Whitehall and the river and quays deserted, Pepys reported it 'a delightful thing' to see London gradually repopulating as the menace abated, and shops and taverns beginning to open their doors."

This booklet, 47 pages, came in a boxed lot (the way I get most of my books), so it may be a little hard to come by today. It makes the perfect start to a new reading project I've been mulling over, and it might prompt someone out there to shut off the computer or phone, pull out a pen and paper, and start a diary of their own.