I offer some notes on her biographical method.
I’m two-thirds through her 2002 book on the 17th century diarist and naval administrator, Samuel Pepys. Instead, I raced through it like a beach read – it’s utterly gripping and you won’t regret adding it to your bookshelf one bit.Claire Tomalin is a master literary biographer who makes the genre more compelling and interesting than any other writer I know. I didn’t know much about Pepys before reading this book, and assumed it might be a slow read. Reading this biography was so transporting it often made me feel like a rather voyeuristic fly on Pepys’ wall – although I wasn’t sorry to return to the 21st century after reading of the anaesthetic-less surgery he endured to remove a bladder stone the size of a tennis ball! Tomalin’s analysis seeps into the gaps of Pepys’ diaries and fleshes them out beyond their limited time frame. This structure ensures depth, but doesn’t stop the book from feeling exciting and fast-paced. The chapters in this biography are split thematically rather than chronologically, allowing Tomalin to dive deep into Pepys’ mind and experiences without disruption. He impressively avoids the temptation of presenting himself in a favourable light, instead preferring to state events how they happened – even if he ends up coming across badly. Samuel Pepys is searingly honest and self-aware in his diaries. Not in this case! Far from being a dry mirror to the diaries, Claire Tomalin’s biography reads almost like a novel, her prose as lively and absorbing as Pepys’ own.
You’d think a biography would pale in comparison to a flesh-and-blood diary with first-hand descriptions of The Great Fire of 1666 and The Great Plague of 1665.
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