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Title: Samuel Pepys : The Unequalled Self by CLAIRE TOMALIN ISBN: 0-375-72553-9 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 11 November, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.77 (13 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: An excellent, well-rounded bio
Comment: In "Samuel Pepys: An Unequaled Self," Claire Tomalin succeeds in giving the reader a very thorough, meticulously documented, and delightfully unbiased view of the life of the world's most famous diarist. Though I have not read the diaries myself, I didn't find it detrimental to my enjoyment of the book. In fact, I think this biography could make an excellent precursor to reading the diary, as Tomalin sheds a tremendous light on the life and times of the second half of the seventeenth century, and helps place the diary within a much wider historical context, (especially for those like myself who have not studied much about the Restoration previously.)
Unlike others who have reviewed this book, I found the sections about Pepys life after the diary equally fascinating. Tomalin, who empathizes with her subject frequently, but never falls into the trap of blind worship, does a wonderful job of placing the details about post-diary Pepys that can be gleaned from official documents and correspondence, and imbuing it with the kind of life and insight that can be discovered through the diary sections.
Not to mention, the section about the kidney stone operation will undoubtedly make even the most stoic of men cross their legs and cringe. Well worth a read!
Rating: 5
Summary: An Unequaled Biography
Comment: This biography fully deserves all the praise it has been getting: it is intelligent, sympathetic to its subject without being worshipful, and the language is fresh. Pepys was an important public figure in his day and reading about him, one learns a lot about English history in the second half of the seventeenth century. Best of all, Tomalin succeeds in bringing him and his times very much to life without in any way compromising the great distance between his age - which was as close to the Middle Ages as to us - and our own. Tomalin, clearly, is engaged largely by Pepys as diarist. Unfortunately for her, and for her biography, Pepys lived almost forty years after putting his diary aside, and her treatment of this part of his life - that is, most of it - is dutiful (and dealt with in 100 pages, only a quarter of the book) rather than inspired. This book is, nonetheless, an admirable achievement by any standard, and a great pleasure to read.
Rating: 5
Summary: A Wonderful Paean to a Talented Diarist and Administrator
Comment: Claire Tomalin is quite taken with Samuel Pepys, warts and all, comparing his Diary to the works of Milton, Bunyan, Chaucer, Dickens and Proust. She often calls him Sam in her biography, "Samuel Pepys: The Unequaled Self." Less formidable than H.W. Brands, "The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin," her biography is every bit its equal in verve and the sheer fun I had in its reading. It is more of a true biography than, say, Grazia's analysis of Machiavelli's political and social theories in, "Machiavelli in Hell" with details of his life included more for context than storytelling.
Many, including myself, are probably already familiar with Pepys in the context of his Diary. Indeed, I was first introduced to him in high school where I was required to read his accounts of the plague and the great fire in London. Robert Loius Stevenson compared the "fullness and...intimacy of detail..." found in Pepys' diary with another great self-examiner of a half-century before, Michel de Montaigne. Though Tomalin points out that the two were different in their approaches, and indeed Pepys probably was not even aware of Montaigne's work, she acknowledges that the writings of both contain a uniqueness not found in contemporary literature.
Her fascination with Pepys does lead Tomalin to forgive some of his more odious faults, painting them in soft-edges. But, in her defense she is also quick to point out his hypocrisy and does not shy away from the telling of his most shameful deeds. I think Barzun got it right in his book, "From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 To The Present": "It is a waste of breath to point out that every observer is in some way biased. It does not follow that bias cannot be guarded against, that all biases distort equally, or that controlled bias remains as bad as propaganda." I think Tomalin's bias is not one of omission but rather one of feeling, rather like a mother's bias toward her recalcitrant son. She goes well beyond the Diary in digging into a past that encompasses no mean achievements for a tailor's son. She tells the story of this extraordinary life against the backdrop of an England suffering from civil and international wars and plagues without ever letting Pepys leave center stage. The man who had been the simple diarist I was introduced to in high-school, Tomalin transforms into a critical, and at times caustic, man of great administrative and oratorical talents. But for all of that he might have slipped into obscurity had it not been for the system of patronage that many great men of the past owe their lasting memory to. Her narrative loses some of its stride during the years after the Diary closes. It is unfortunately a period lacking in the personal reflections of the man himself since he chose not return to the Diary and we only know him through letters, official papers, and a couple short spates at new journals. Nevertheless, this biography is a worthy tribute to Samuel Pepys and one well worth the reading.
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Title: The Diary of Samuel Pepys (Modern Library) by Samuel Pepys, Richard Le Gallienne, Robert Louis Stevenson ISBN: 0679642218 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 26 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty by Caroline Alexander ISBN: 067003133X Publisher: Viking Books Pub. Date: 15 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Living to Tell the Tale by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Edith Grossman ISBN: 1400041341 Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Pub. Date: 04 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: Jane Austen: A Life by Claire Tomalin ISBN: 0679766766 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Brick Lane: A Novel by Monica Ali ISBN: 0743243307 Publisher: Scribner Book Company Pub. Date: 09 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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