[Rarebooks] FS: MEMOIRS OF SAMUEL PEPYS 1st ed.

[Kaaterskill Books]

We offer for Sale:

Pepys, Samuel; Braybrooke, Richard Griffin, Lord, ed. MEMOIRS OF 
SAMUEL PEPYS COMPRISING HIS DIARY FROM 1659 TO 1669, DECIPHERED BY 
THE REV. JOHN SMITH A.B. OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, FROM THE 
ORIGINAL SHORT-HAND MS. IN THE PEPYSIAN LIBRARY, AND A SELECTION FROM 
HIS PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE. EDITED BY RICHARD, LORD BRAYBROOKE. [TWO 
VOLUMES]. London: Henry Colburn, 1825. [2], xlii, 498, [2], xlix, [3] 
pp.; [4], 348, vii, [1], 311, [1] pp. Illus. with an engraved 
frontispiece in each volume plus 11 engraved plates (1 folding), and 
two engraved in-text illustrations. The plates are engraved by R. 
Cooper, Bragg Thomson, and R. White, after Kneller, Derby, Lely, 
Hailes, and Neville. 4to. (33 cm). Three quarter morocco over marble 
paper-covered boards, four compartments, two with gilt titles, top 
edge gilt, marbled endpapers.  First edition. Matthews, p.29; CBEL, 
p.831; Grolier 100 (#75); Osler 5286; Lowndes III, 1828.

Pepys (1633-1703) kept his diary for only nine years (Jan 1660 - May 
1669) yet "we know more about Pepys than about any other Englishman 
of his time," Ollard. It is the "nonpareil of English Diaries; the 
observations and records of a man of infinite variety and zest 'ever 
with child to see new things;' his own work, domestic life, 
friendships, and pleasures, which took him to almost every section of 
English life, from the court to the docks; in its immediacy and 
variety it is one of the supreme portraits of a man, inside and 
outside, and a mirror of the times," Matthews, British Diaries. The 
diary was a cipher until John Smith broke the code leading to this 
first edition edited by Lord Braybrooke the help of George Neville 
(Grenville). One of the great works in the English language. Page 69 
is mis-numbered 76. Scarce in a first edition.

Spine scuffed, corners and edges worn, boards rubbed, bookplates 
removed from endpapers, small bump with tear to rear board of volume 
2, scattered foxing and some browning with usual offsetting from 
plates, but firmly bound, solid, with clean crisp text, and overall 
still a very good handsome set.  [26153]  $2250.00

http://www.kaaterskillbooks.com/img/26153.jpg

Regards,

Charles Kutcher
Kaaterskill Books
P.O. Box 122
East Jewett, NY 12424.
Phone: 518-589-0555.
Email: books at kaaterskillbooks.com
Member of I. O. B. A.


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