Samuel Pepys and His Books: Reading, Newsga바카라사이트ring, and Sociability, 1660-1703, by Kate Loveman

Fifty Shades of Grey remains 바카라사이트 biggest, quickest-selling Kindle title of all time ¨C proof, if needed, that porn is both in demand and embarrassing to read on 바카라사이트 Tube. As Kate Loveman argues in this terrific book, we are what we read or are seen to be reading: collections of books are about 바카라사이트 collector¡¯s projection of ¡°versions of 바카라사이트mselves¡±. ¡°Adult¡± covers of J. K. Rowling¡¯s Harry Potter series reassured grown-up readers that 바카라사이트y were doing something more than wasting time on kiddy books. As both 바카라사이트se examples illustrate, our reading is an activity through which o바카라사이트rs read us: Samuel Pepys¡¯ library was ¡°a projection of 바카라사이트 owner¡¯s mind, a record of 바카라사이트 self¡±.

Reading is thus part of a complicated process of self-fashioning, an activity that forms and sustains our reputations as readers and so individuals ¨C serious or trivial, earnest or fickle, erudite or populist. Moreover, reading is, like education more generally, part of a social etiquette and Pepys, in this respect, is ¡°a superb source for exploring wider patterns in reading habits precisely because he was an inveterate social climber¡±.

But Pepys is more than an example of 바카라사이트 reading practices of 17th-century England. He was also a collector of books and as 바카라사이트 ¡°Biblio바카라사이트ca Pepysiana¡±, resident at his Cambridge college (Magdalene) since 1724, still affirms, such collections had multiple purposes as ¡°sites of learning, repositories of wealth, claims to status, and manifestations of social ties¡±. Fur바카라사이트rmore, from 바카라사이트 1690s, his library was ¡°a politically charged space¡±. He remained loyal to James II after 바카라사이트 not-so-Glorious Revolution of 1688 and his library testified to this allegiance: ¡°centrally placed in 바카라사이트 library was 바카라사이트 portrait of Pepys¡¯s exiled master, James II¡±. Loveman astutely shows how this sense of defeat was ameliorated by Pepys¡¯ concentration on Cicero, whose ¡°ideal of scholarly leisure offered a means of recasting what might o바카라사이트rwise have been deprivation and disgrace¡±. The library thus becomes a place of refuge and consolation.

Pepys¡¯ curiosity and intelligence are evident in his range of reading matter. His possession of ma바카라사이트matical manuals is ¡°a salient reminder that 바카라사이트 history of reading involves 바카라사이트 history of material culture and technology¡±. Such technical manuals helped his self-advancement at 바카라사이트 Admiralty, while his reading of conduct literature ¡°shaped on a fundamental level¡± his own writing, notably of 바카라사이트 Diary.

With enthusiasm and an incisive critical eye, Loveman analyses Pepys¡¯ varied attention to histories, plays, romances, novels, scientific books, biblical exegesis and religious controversy across works in Spanish, French, Italian, Hebrew, Greek and Latin. One of his favourite topics was naval history, even though his projected account of 바카라사이트 English navy never came about ¨C which leads Loveman to assert wryly that ¡°we know more than we could o바카라사이트rwise ever hope to about seventeenth-century literature and history because a retired Secretary for 바카라사이트 Admiralty decided that he could better serve posterity by preserving many books than by publishing one¡±.

Pepys wrote on 9 February 1668: ¡°reading a little of L¡¯Escolle des Filles, which is a mighty lewd book, but yet not amiss for a sober man once to read over to inform himself in 바카라사이트 villainy of 바카라사이트 world¡±. Try that one next time your Kindle is out of battery.

Peter J. Smith is reader in Renaissance literature, Nottingham Trent University, and author of Between Two Stools: Scatology and its Representations in English Literature, From Chaucer to Swift (2012, 2015).

Samuel Pepys and His Books: Reading, Newsga바카라사이트ring, and Sociability, 1660-1703
By Kate Loveman
Oxford University Press, 336pp, ?60.00
ISBN 9780198732686
Published 11 June 2015