Musing about Pepys

Intrigued by this review of Claire Tomalin's biography Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self. kijjohnson, I know, reads Pepys for fun. I have not read much of the diary myself, but I did make jolly good use of the extensive notes in the last volume of the annotated diary, when I was writing The Wild Swans, which offered fascinating, useful tidbits about funeral customs, foods, clothing, an excellent glossary of 17th century language and slang, etc. I read Claire Tomalin's biography of Jane Austen and enjoyed it very much; I might have to pick this one up as well. This makes me think about what I'm doing in LiveJournal:

No one agrees on when the modern era began. The 17th century, when Francis Bacon heralded the rise of science? The rise of a literate middle class in the 18th century? Author Claire Tomalin thinks the modern era began Jan. 1, 1660, when Samuel Pepys began writing literature's most celebrated diary. That diary, she says, shows Pepys to be the first modern man -- an argument central to her compelling new biography, "Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self."

Unlike the Puritan diarists who preceded him, Pepys does not appear much interested in the examination of conscience. Rather, Tomalin says, he "looked at himself with as much curiosity as he looked at the exterior world," an observer who writes with a scientific detachment about the self who acts.

He observes everything. He marks the events of the wider world . . . All is recorded with a matter-of-factness that fascinates.

Am I enough of an observer, really? I have developed a great deal of self-awareness, due, no doubt, to twenty-eight years of keeping a daily journal. But I think that I go through periods--like now, when it's the bleak midwinter, and I haven't seen enough sunlight for far too long--when I become rather like Sylvia Plath under the bell jar, breathing only my own air, thinking only of what is spinning around in my mind, rather than really observing the world around me. Sure, I've talked about the girls in recent entries, but I think that I have not been really paying enough attention to things that are not familiar.

I am not sure I'm explaining myself very well. But I guess what I'm trying to say is, I think I need to develop further that capacity that Tomalin says that Pepys had, to observe, not just myself and the concerns of my own mind, but a wide range of human concerns, with a discerning eye. I have been a bit too insular lately.

And so to bed.

Peg

P.S.: Afterward: Thanks to serendipoz for pointing out that beginning 1/1/03 Pepys' diary is now being mirrored on LiveJournal (mirrored from www.pepysdiary.com). Go to pepysdiary, add it as a friend, and you can read an entry daily on your friends page.