Reviews for The Diary of John Evelyn

The average rating for The Diary of John Evelyn based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-05-28 00:00:00 Chris Coolley John Evelyn lived through some turbulent times in England's history- the Cromwell parliament, the restoration of the monarchy, the Great Fire of London to name but a few. He frequently mixed with royalty and had many famous friends, including Sir Christopher Wren and Samuel Pepys. His diaries are not full of scandal and gossip (unlike Pepys) but they do give an honest account of the upper echelon of society during the seventeenth century and what it was like to be a rich and pious Protestant at that time. The first part of the diary contains a full and frankly tedious account of Evelyn's tour of Europe. There is so much emphasis upon which palace/chateau/stately home he visited and lists of curiousities and collections viewed in them . I found it best to skim over these pages. He does come across as a good, kind and very intellectual man and I felt that I had lost a good friend when his diary finished in 1706 due to his poor health and subsequent death at the age of 85

Review # 2 was written on 2015-04-08 00:00:00 Burton Hein He doesn't have the verve and indiscretion of Pepys but in Evelyn is probably a better representative of the country gentleman living away from court. Although often quotidian and rather dry in his entries, he reveals a dear love towards his children and his friends. He lived to an old age and so, unlike Pepys' journal, we see the changing landscape of England over a lifetime and not simply a decade.