Samuel Pepys: The Saviour of the Navy: Amazon.co.uk: Arthur Bryant: Books

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great storyteller on a great storyteller, 20 Dec 2002

By	john harding - See all my reviews

This review is from: Samuel Pepys: The Saviour of the Navy v. 3 (Panther Books) (Paperback)

Arthur Bryant is a historian who knows how to tell a good tale. In this case his subject is a man who has left us one of the most fascinating tales, the diary of one of the most remarkable Englishmen of all time. From modest origins, Pepys rose to become Secretary of the Navy and, in effect, the founder of the British civil service. In the last of three volumes Bryant tells how Pepys applied rigour and devotion to the hitherto rather slapdash business of building the fleet that was to be Britain's main bulwark until the Second World War.

What I most love about this book is that Bryant loves his subject. Love is not too strong a word. Admiration thrives on what is admirable. Love is forgiving, and admits of the human, of the foibles and weaknesses. I am thinking not only of Pepys's well-known freedom with women servants but also, for example, the satisfaction with which he surveys the swelling of his fortune, accrued sometimes by means that would not pass 20th century scrutiny, but that more than met the standards of the time. Bryant does not insist on the ethics of hindsight.

The diary of Pepys records enough matter to make ten average biographies. A pity, then, that it is rather hard to read in the original. 17th century English - certainly Pepys's English - often has a headlong flow which leaves us uncertain as to the exact relationship between parts of a sentence. Bryant gives us ample passages of direct quotation, but in between, his own narrative often adopts a tincture of Pepys's own style, so that we are not wrenched harshly from Pepys's own world. We feel Bryant is telling it as Pepys would tell it if he came among us.

These books will not be in print forever. More's the pity.