The Diary Of John Evelyn

In the times before the first newspapers and magazines saw the light of the day, chronicles, memoirs, and personal diaries were the primary source of information about the ordinary life and manners of the people. John Evelyn's Diary is an example of such work. It was created from 1640 to 1706. He covered the developments in art, culture, and politics and gave an account of his travels and occupation. In these diaries, a reader can find comments on the execution of King Charles I, the Great Fire of London, the Great Plague, and many more A contemporary reader familiar with these events from the history books will be interested in viewing them from the point of real-time witness. Together with the diaries of Samuel Pepys, Evelyn's Diaries were the primary source of information about the life of ordinary people in the 17th century.

Introduction: curiouser and curiouser -- 'The world do not grow old at all' -- Two worlds -- The decade of the diaries -- Prodigious revolutions -- 'Even private families are ... the best of governments' -- Private lives -- 'I do indulge myself a little the more in pleasure' -- Take nobody's word for it -- Pleasure above all things -- Hortulan affairs -- Exotic extravagances -- The affection which we have to books -- Epilogue: and so to bed -- Appendix: the true domestick intelligence

A three-volume 1906 edition of the memoirs and diary of Stuart writer John Evelyn, up to his death in 1706.

The great English writer and gardener John Evelyn (1620–1706) kept a diary all his life. Today, this diary is considered an invaluable source of information on more than fifty years of social, cultural, religious, and political life in seventeenth-century England. Evelyn’s work is often overshadowed by the literary contributions of his contemporary and friend, Samuel Pepys. This new biography changes that. John Dixon Hunt takes a fresh look at the life and work of one of England’s greatest diarists, focusing particularly on Evelyn’s “domesticity.” The book explores Evelyn’s life at home, and perhaps even more importantly, his domestication of foreign ideas and practices in England. During the English Civil Wars, Evelyn traveled extensively throughout Europe, taking in ideas on the management of estate design while abroad to apply them in England. Evelyn’s greatest accomplishment was the import of European garden art to the UK, a feat Hunt puts into context alongside a range of Evelyn’s social and ethical thinking. Illustrated with visual material from Evelyn’s time and from his own pen, the book is an ideal introduction to a hugely important figure in the shaping of early modern Britain.