John Evelyn: Living for Ingenuity - Softcover

Darley, Gillian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 030020891X ISBN 13: 9780300208917

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2014

Synopsis

This new biography of John Evelyn, diarist, scholar, and intellectual virtuoso (1620-1706), is the first account to make full use of his huge unpublished archive, deposited at the British Library in 1995. This crucial material permits a broader and richer picture of Evelyn, his life, and his friendships than permitted by his own celebrated diaries.
Gillian Darley provides a rounded portrait of Evelyn’s eighty-five years--his family life, his exile in Paris, his interests, and his preoccupations. Evelyn lived through some of England’s most tumultuous history, through five reigns, the Civil War, the Restoration, and the Revolution of 1688. He was author or translator of countless publications, tackling an enormous variety of contemporary issues. Both a religious man and a key figure in the Royal Society, he viewed Christianity and the new science as wholly compatible. Evelyn remained endlessly curious and engaged into very old age, and this absorbing biography demonstrates the liveliness of his hugely busy mind.

About this title

About the Author:

Gillian Darley is the author of John Soane: An Accidental Romantic, published by Yale University Press. She was architectural correspondent of the Observer, 1990-94.

From Booklist:

Evelyn (1620-1706) was an English writer whose 20 major works represent a valuable historical record of his time. Darley's biography is based on Evelyn's unpublished archive, deposited at the British Library in 1995; she reveals that his voluminous papers include books, lists and catalogs, sermon notes and personal devotions, manuals to guide the young, incomplete manuscripts, and miscellaneous correspondence covering 80 years of public and private life. Darley points out that Evelyn translated work from French, Latin, and Greek in both verse and prose and "his hand can be seen equally behind the setting up of public libraries, the establishment of 20th century town and country planning legislation, and the popularity of vegetarianism." The author chronicles Evelyn's family life in England and his exile in Paris, as well as his interest in such subjects as the environment, architecture, gardening, fashion, politics, and the visual arts. This biography vividly recounts the life and time of a remarkable scholar. George Cohen
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About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 030020891X
• ISBN 13: 9780300208917
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416