Samuel Pepys led a colourful life, to be sure, but unfortunately this book is more in black and white than glorious technicolour. It’s obviously been diligently researched, but it is quite dry. I know that academic tomes have to be on the serious side, but that doesn’t mean they have to be boring. Unfortunately, this book was.

Thank you to NetGalley and Yale University Press for a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I received a free electronic copy of this history from Netgalley, Margaret Willes, and Yale University Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

This is an excellent biography of but Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn. Though their ideals and expectations were completely at odds, it was astonishing how often they joined together to make life more secure and safe for the common man. These were two extraordinary statesmen who worked for the cause of humanity.

Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn are two of the most celebrated English diarists. If Pepys was a well-known figure from Restoration, John Evelyn was mainly known by those interested in garden history. They lived in a turbulent age such as the Restoration, an age marked by the regicide, the revolution, the plague and the Great Fire that destroyed the city of London. Pepys and Evelyn are two important witnesses and active participants to an age that completely bouleversed the English political scene internally and overseas. They came from two different backgrounds, but were brought together when they were recruited on the Commission for Sick and Wounded Men to relieve the suffering of sailors injured and impoverished by the Anglo-Dutch Wars. Their diary is not only a first-hand account of political matters but also a record of personal life and activities. Diary-keeping had become a custom for some by the end of the 17th century and as a form of moral account for the perfect Christian. Nowdays, diary-keeping has been replaced by blogs and social networks, but they lack of privacy. Maybe reading this book can encourage someone to write again his own diary. I hope so.

Margaret Willes’s The Curious World of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn packs in a lot of information into a rather short work. As a reader, I could appreciate the well-researched nature of the book, and I could tell that Willes enjoys the subject matter. I have never read any biographies about Pepys or Evelyn, and while Willes says this was not the purpose of the work, I feel now that I have read a biography about both of them more than finding out about the curious world they lived. I would recommend this book to others because of the amount of information and the fact that it was an enjoyable easy read, but I would caution that I do not feel the book actually achieves the author’s goal.

Thank you, NetGalley and Yale University Press for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

"The Curious World of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn" is a biography of both Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn. The author quoted from their diaries and personal correspondence, but she generally summarized what was said (probably because that's easier to read and understand).

She divided their lives into several themes: public careers and wider context of what was going on, descriptions of their family and major friends, their involvement in the Royal Society and interest in science, Pepys' interest in the theatre and music, Evelyn's interest in gardens and gardening and his books on horticulture, and their libraries (books, ballads, prints, etc.). The author also threw in some information about tea, coffee, and chocolate along with other imported consumer goods (including flowers and other plants).

These men lived through the Restoration of Charles II, the plague, and the Great Fire of London in 1666. It was interesting to see their views on what was going on and to get a sense of what life was like at that time. It's a quick look at what was happening and what some people's attitudes and interests were like. Overall, I'd recommend this book to those interested in this time period in England.

An interesting topic and lots of information crammed into this book but it feels disjointed and unstructured throughout. Willes asserts that she's not writing a dual biography of Pepys and Evelyn, but it's not as clear as it could be what her intention is: she uses the conceit of a 'cabinet of curiosities' which seems to be an excuse to jump from topic to topic at will.

So there are abbreviated sections here about the lives of both men, about the Anglo-Dutch Wars, the execution of Charles I, the New Model Army, the Great Fire and so on - but it all feels haphazard and superficial. I kept feeling that I was still reading a kind of general introduction even when I was 50% into the book...

Lacking an overall argument or thesis, this ends of being a jumble of information - interesting but frustratingly unstructured and disjointed - I really wanted some kind of organisation to relate the various strands to each other.

This well-researched book delves into the minutiae of the 17th century. Friends Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn were prodigious letter writers and diarists, and provide much information about life in London, including firsthand accounts of the Great Fire, the plague, the Restoration, and the introduction of “the trio of exotic beverages” tea, coffee, and chocolate. We also learn a bit about each man’s passion: for Evelyn, it was horticulture, and for Pepys, music and theater.

A valuable edition to the literature of the period.

Willes explores how Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn, diarists and observers of Restoration London, came to see the world in two parallel but distinctly different ways--Pepys as a scrappy social climber and worker of the state bureaucracy, Evelyn the wealthy and cultured courtier with exile cred. Unusually, the two crossed paths during the Anglo-Dutch Wars as they both worked on a charity to aid disabled sailors, becoming friends but still distinctly different lenses through which to view Stuart England. There's not much new here if you've read the Tomlinson or Darley biographies, but seeing them deliberately in tandem is interesting. Also, I had forgotten that in the Great Fire, as the flames threatened his house, Pepys ran outside to bury important papers, some money and a large wheel of Parmesan cheese in the back yard.