LM Montgomery on “The Diary of Samuel Pepys: 1662″

“I never read it before, though I have heard of it all my life. It is the most unique book. No one but an Englishman could have written it. It is a book without a spark of wit, without a gleam of conscious humor, without passion, imagination or insight. It is a book which deals almost wholly with commonplace people and incidents. And yet it is packed with interest from cover to cover and is irradiated on every page with unconscious humor. Its great charm is its sense of reality. It is impossible to believe that it is over 200 years since Pepys lived. He must have been alive yesterday. The people he mentions — his neighbors and servants and sweethearts — are alive. We know them. Pepys himself is a most naive and engaging old sinner in his love of fine clothes, of ‘good eating’ and of ‘gadding abroad looking for beauties.’ The book is delightful. I always come back to my own world after reading it with a jolt.”