Diary of Samuel Pepys — Volume 19: November/december 1662
Diary of Samuel Pepys — Volume 19: November/december 1662
Translated by Mynors Bright
This is Pepys at his most irresistible: a man caught between grand history and petty anxieties, between court intrigue and domestic unrest. November and December 1662 find him navigating the treacherous waters of Restoration politics while obsessing over dinner party gossip, his wife's mysterious moods, and a bizarre treasure hunt through London's underworld. Pepys chronicles the mundane with the same intensity as national crisis, his naval logistics meetings receive the same meticulous attention as a new actress at the Duke's Theatre or a whispered affair among the aristocracy. This is history not as it's officially recorded, but as it actually felt to live through: messy, fascinating, and shot through with Pepys's relentless curiosity about everything from Admiralty paperwork to the quality of the wine. The diary's power lies in its brutal honesty, he skewers his own vanity, jealousy, and lust with the precision of a satirist, revealing a man as compelling as any character in the fiction he devours.
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“Strange to see how a good dinner and feasting reconciles everybody.””
— Samuel Pepys
“The truth is, I do indulge myself a little the more in pleasure, knowing that this is the proper age of my life to do it; and, out of my observation that most men that do thrive in the world do forget to take pleasure during the time that they are getting their estate, but reserve that till they have got one, and then it is too late for them to enjoy it.””
— Samuel Pepys
“He that will not stoop for a pin will never be worth a pound.””
— Samuel Pepys
“And so to bed.””
— Samuel Pepys
“Great talk among people how some of the Fanatiques do say that the end of the world is at hand, and that next Tuesday is to be the day. Against which, whenever it shall be, good God fit us all!””
— Samuel Pepys
“I find it a hard matter to settle to business after so much leisure and pleasure.””
— Samuel Pepys
“Now public business takes up so much of my time that I must get time a Sundays or a nights to look after my own matters.””
— Samuel Pepys
“neighbour of ours, Mr. Hollworthy, a very able man, is also dead by a fall in the country from his horse, his foot hanging in the stirrup, and his brains beat out.””
— Samuel Pepys
“I saw the girl of the house, being very pretty, go into a chamber, and I went in after her and kissed her.””
— Samuel Pepys
