Diaries of John Evelyn Volume I

The diary of John Evelyn is one of the great overlooked treasures of English literature. Written between 1641 and 1698, it offers an intimate portrait of a tumultuous century through the eyes of a man who knew everyone: royalty, scientists, artists, architects. Evelyn witnessed the execution of Charles I from the crowds of London, spent years in exile in France and Italy as a Royalist, and returned to find a nation transformed. His entries on the Great Plague and Great Fire of London stand alongside Pepys as the finest contemporary accounts. But what elevates Evelyn is his restless curiosity about everything from the construction of St Paul's Cathedral to the anatomy of a cuttlefish. This is daily life in the seventeenth century, unfiltered: politics, art, science, gardening, and the simple passage of time. For anyone who wants to understand how people actually lived, thought, and felt in the age of Descartes and Newton, Evelyn is indispensable.