Samuel Pepys

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The author of the greatest diary in the English language is hard to compete with, but since Pepys kept his diary for only 10 years (eye trouble ended it), Coote is otherwise on his own. Although he cannot match the diarist's racy prose, Coote brings off Pepys's turbulent life colorfully and with sympathy. As biographer of Charles I, Coote had consulted the 1660-1669 diaries of Pepys and, for good reason, could not put the volumes down. As Clerk of the Works, Pepys was the efficient bureaucrat who administered the navy and managed, in the process, to be involved in nearly every major event in post-Cromwell Britain and to know everyone who counted, either as ally or enemy. Shrewd and nimble, he was exhaustingly convivial, constantly curious and calculatingly ambitious. As Coote writes, "Public office was indeed a way to private riches." Little of it failed to make his diary. The reader lives through the Great Plague, the Great Fire of London, the restoration of the king and the wars for regional supremacy. But Pepys lived on until 1703, 34 years after the diary stopped, battling to keep Charles II in power and clinging to his own perquisites as long as he could. As a boy he had pushed through the crowd to watch the execution of Charles I. Later, as a toppled officeholder "so dangerously able and so loud in the assertion of his own virtues," he nearly lost his own head. Coote informs as he entertains. One even learns such things as what "umble pie" really was. No academic read, Samuel Pepys will appeal to a broad, and broad-minded, audience. 16 pages of illus. not seen by PW. (May) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) may be most widely remembered for his six-volume diary, a candid and scrupulously detailed record of his life and work from January 1, 1660, until May 31, 1669. Less widely remembered is that from 1673, when he became secretary to the Lord High Admiral of England, until 1689, when the "Glorious Revolution" forced his resignation, Pepys typified that "small oligarchy of professional administrators who, with direct access to the King and full responsibility under the royal will, combined in themselves a heady mixture of administrative power and political influence." It was Pepys, argues Coote (Royal Survivor: The Life of Charles II, LJ 1/00), who, with "his energy, his desire for order, his experience and innovation... would make the Admiralty into the unique, ruthlessly controlling force of the entire naval service." Although the author enlivens this biography with vivid excerpts from Pepys's eyewitness accounts of the Restoration, the Plague, and the Great Fire, the "life" Coote focuses on and makes even more fascinating is that of Pepys the forerunner of that unique bulwark of British government: the civil servant. Recommended for public and academic libraries. Robert C. Jones, Central Missouri State Univ., Warrensburg Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

Based in large part on Pepys' famous diary, this biography tells of his humble childhood as the son of a tailor, and his career and success leading him to positions in Parliament and the Admiralty. Coote (an author) tells of Pepys' private life, including a picture of his relationship with his wife (and, his relationships with other women as well). Pepys' more conventional friendships with actors, scientists, and statesmen are also detailed. Sixteen pages of black and white illustrations are included. First published by Hodder and Stroughton in 2000.. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)