This is an auction for SAMUEL PEPYS: THE UNEQUALLED SELF, by Claire Tomalin.

"Samuel Pepys achieved fame as a naval administrator, a friend and colleague of the powerful and learned, a figure of substance. But for nearly ten years he kept a private diary in which he recorded, with unparalleled openness and sensitivity to the turbulent world around him, exactly what it was like to be a young man in Restoration London. This diary lies at the heart of Claire Tomalin's biography. Yet the use she makes of it - and of other hitherto unexamined material - is startlingly fresh and original. Within and beyond the narrative of Pepys' extraordinary career, she explores his inner life - his relations with women, his fears and ambitions, his political shifts, his agonies and his delights."

CONTENTS:

• Part 1 1633-1660: the elected son; a schoolboy's war - Huntingdon and St Paul's; Cambridge and clerking; love and pain; a house in Axe Yard; a diary.
• Part 2 1660-1669: changing sides; families; work; jealousy; death and plague; war; marriage; the king; the fire; three Janes; the secret scientist; speeches and stories; surprise and disorder.
• Part 3 1669-1703: after the diary; public and private life; plots; travels for the Stuarts; whirligigs; the Jacobite; a journey to be made.

Large format (trade) Penguin paperback 2002.

499 pages + 50 illustrations.

A previous owner's name on the flyleaf. Otherwise, very good condition.

The cost of shipping is $4.95.

There is of course no charge for shipping if you collect this book from my shop in Palmerston North following the auction.

Payment within seven days, please.