International Journal of English Literature and Culture
 

International Journal of English Literature and Culture

Vol. 4(4), pp. 61-64, April, 2016

 ISSN: 2360-7831

DOI: 10.14662/IJELC2016.030

Review paper

Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn: The Diarist of the Seventeenth Century

Arjun N. Khobragade

Assistant Professor of English, Yeshwant Mahavidyalaya, Seloo, Dist. Wardha, RTMNU, Nagpur University, Nagpur.

E-mail: arjunkhobragade@gmail.com

Accepted 8 May 2016

Diaries written in the Restoration age provides us an insight into the day to day life of that period. These diaries were not written with an intention of being read by others. The writers did not wish to make any claim to having produced literature. These are frank and sincere accounts of what actually happened. Diaries and memoir writers supplied one of the most remarkable divisions of prose of the seventeenth century. The development of newspaper and the periodical is also an interesting literary sideline of this era. The civil war undoubtedly stimulated a public appetite for up to the minute news which was supplemented by a new way of living and thinking. The most well known of the diary writers are Samuel Pepys, John Evelyn and Roger North. Samuel Pepys’s diary provides us an accurate picture of the social and political life of that age. Through the diary Pepys seemed to be talking to himself. His language is spontaneous. He wrote what comes to his mind and did not try to refine it. One comes across slips and abbreviation in his writing. There was at times an irregularity in sequence. The writing was based upon active observation which is continuously analyzed. Evelyn’s diary was full of accurate information. He also had his own unique style of narration.

Keywords: Diary, seventeenth century, Pepys, Evelyn, social and political etc.

Cite This Article As: Khobragade AN (2016). Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn: The Diarist of the Seventeenth Century. Inter.  J. Eng. Lit. Cult. 4(4): 61-64

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