Pepys and His Contemporaries (National Portrait Gallery Companions)

The Diary of Samuel Pepys is an indisputable treasure of English literature, and one of the most important documentary sources of the English Restoration period. Pepys’ Diary, maintained daily for almost ten years, records his reactions to minutiae and momentous occasions alike―documenting the daily weather and his diet alongside firsthand accounts of events such as the coronation of King Charles II. As a picture of London in the age of Charles II, Christopher Wren, Isaac Newton, the Plague and the Great Fire, it is a rare and honest report that charts the key events of the day in an engaging voice. In this volume, historian Richard Ollard introduces Samuel Pepys alongside his friends and acquaintances including Edward Montagu, Charles II and John Evelyn. Illustrated with painted portraits, busts and engravings from the National Portrait Gallery’s collection and an extract from the Diary in Pepys’ original shorthand, this extensively illustrated book charts those men and women who surrounded Pepys.