1827 Memoirs Of John Evelyn Esq With Correspondence

Description

Illustrated, Leather Binding

Like Pepys, these diaries illuminate the social life, manners, and politics of the day. They provide a first hand account of the experience of key events in English history, such as the civil war, the great plague, and the Great Fire of London. The diary was an unpublished manuscript until 1818, when Bray first published this work. This is the second edition, and in five volumes is much enlarged from the original two. Appended is the private correspondence between Charles I and Sir Edward Nicholas, and between Sir Edward Hyde and Sir Richard Browne. Having fled abroad during the Civil War, Evelyn nevertheless held a number of important Royal commissions upon his return, and as such held important insight into court and political life in the Restoration. The Encyclopaedia Britannica comments, "His Diary, begun when he was 11 years old... was written for himself alone but with relatively little about himself in it. It ranges from bald memoranda to elaborate set pieces. With its descriptions of places and events, characters of contemporaries, and many reports of sermons, it bears witness to more than 50 years of English life and, as such, is of great historical value." With a number of plates of illustrations and genealogies, and frontispieces. Collated: complete