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I suspect most people who read unabridged Pepys for any length of time end up feeling very ambivalent about him as a person. His diary contains the some of the
by hodgesrm 1y ago
I suspect most people who read unabridged Pepys for any length of time end up feeling very ambivalent about him as a person. His diary contains the some of the deepest introspection of a human life--both the good and the bad--in the history of literature. Rousseau was a cheap marketer by comparison.
That depth of revelation is one of the things that make Pepys hard to put down, even as you find his personality increasingly disagreeable. It is a truly remarkable work.
Edit: added unabridged for clarity
- billfruit 1y agoHow does it compare to Montaigne? Of course Montaigne wasn't writing a diary, he was writing a study about himself.
- hodgesrm 1y agoMontaigne's Essays are primarily philosophical reflections. He did write a very interesting travel diary recounting his voyage from France to visit the Pope in Rome. [0] That diary has a wealth of observations covering everything from the riches of German towns to the number of kidney stones he passed after drinking the waters at various spas along the way. If you ever wondered what travel was like in earlier centuries, it's a delightful account but nothing like Pepys. Pepys recorded a vast range of topics from affairs of state to the consistency of his stools (and everything in between). [0] https://www.gutenberg.org/files/70838/70838-h/70838-h.htm https://www.gutenberg.org/files/70838/70838-h/70838-h.htm
- billfruit 1y agoMontaigne also wrote much about random every day things, about food, rest, sleep, etc. Statecraft was also a common theme in his essays.