EXAM - English literature 2
Samuel Pepys: detailed private diary, 1660 – 1669. Combination of personal revelation and eyewitness
accounts of great events (Great Plague of London, the Second Dutch War, Great Fire of London).
Breathtaking honesty: women he pursued, extramarital relationships, friends, dealings. Reveals his
jealousies, insecurities, trivial concerns, fractious relationship with his wife. Personal accounts of the
restoration of the monarchy.
John Evelyn: his diaries largely contemporaneus to Pepys. Cast considerable light on the art, culture and
politics of the time (deaths of Charles I and Oliver Cromwell). Compared to Pepys, self-consciously pious,
even reserved. Far more a formal record.
11. 17th century religious prose (Donne, Andrewes, Bunyan)
Prose dominated by Christian religious writing, often strayed into political and economic writing
John Bunyan: The Pilgrim’s Process – allegory of personal salvation, a guide to Christian life. Remarkable
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