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The Plot Against Pepys | 
 enlarge | Authors: James Long, Ben Long
Publisher: Overlook Hardcover
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $13.97
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New (30) Used (11) from $9.78
Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 617452
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.1 x 1.5
ISBN: 1590200691
Dewey Decimal Number: 941.066092
EAN: 9781590200698
ASIN: 1590200691
Publication Date: May 29, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. 100% money back guarantee. All books shipped from Strand Bookstore, New York City, USA.
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Product Description
It is 1679 and England is awash with suspicion. Fear of conspiracy and religious terrorism has provoked panic in politicians and a zealous reaction from the legal system. Everywhere, Catholic agents are plotting to overthrow the King--or so it is feared. Now Samuel Pepys, Secretary of the Admiralty, finds himself in a position few people then or now would have expected--charged with treason and facing a show trial and execution. Imprisoned in the Tower of London and abandoned by the embattled King he loyally served, Pepys sets to work with customary brilliance investigating his mysterious accuser, Colonel John Scott, and uncovers a life riddled with ambition, forgery, treason and, ultimately, murder. One part history, one part bone-rattling suspense, James Long and Ben Long brilliantly evoke a turbulent period in England's history and tell the forgotten story of the two most dangerous years in the life of the legendary diarist.
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| Customer Reviews:
Pepys Imprisoned September 10, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is an amazing tale of the Catholics v. the Church of England, of the Whig Party v. the Tory Party, and of paranoia run amuck. It all began because a rumor was spread that there was a plot to kill King Charles II. The Whigs in Parliament claimed it was a Catholic plot to remove Charles and replace him with his brother James, a practicing Catholic.
Samuel Pepys (pronounced "Peeps"), he of the famous diary wherein we see first-hand the Great Fire of London (1666) and the plague (1665), is one of those accused. He is imprisoned in the Tower of London for treason, a crime punishable by death. Pepys is innocent, but many innocent men will be executed.
The main focus of the story is how Pepys and his friends fight the charges. But the book also includes a detailed look at the life of Pepys' accuser, John Scott. Scott seems like a character from Dickens. He is the original flim-flam man, lying, cheating and robbing his way through life. He is a compelling character, though a pathetic one.
This excellent book, written by a father and son team, brings to light an event that has long remained in the shadows. It is a remarkable story, skillfully told
Restoration Witch-Hunting June 2, 2008
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
It is obvious that if he had not written his diary, we would know little about Samuel Pepys. The enormous, twelve volume work documents an early part of his life, and gives details about the Great Fire of London and the everyday life of the court of Charles II. It is his candor throughout, though, that gives the famous work its charm, and his descriptions of sexual dalliances show that he was able to be candid because he was writing for himself. He would have been shocked to find that his work had turned into a classic. But Pepys was an important figure within his time. He rose from humble beginnings to become secretary of the Admiralty Board, and he was simply brilliant as a bureaucrat, loving order, efficiency, and facts. No one could achieve such a position without making enemies, but some enemies assaulted Pepys in a bigoted and fantastic way. Pepys wound up accused of treason and was thrown into the Tower of London in 1679. _The Plot against Pepys: The Untold Story of Espionage and Intrigue in the Tower of London_ (Overlook Press) by father and son team James Long and Ben Long has with amazing detail examined this important part of Pepys's life which, since it occurred after the diary years, has not gotten the attention paid to other parts. It is an often gripping tale with the good guy eventually winning, but only because of the sort of hard work of amassing facts he was used to in his admiralty career, and because of a good deal of luck.
There was a real and dangerous plot against Pepys, and it was part of the larger Popish Plot. Britain had yet to gain the stability of the Church of England. There was a wide distrust of Catholics and warnings that they were going to kill Charles II so that his Catholic brother the Duke of York might take the throne. Pepys ordered investigation of a suspect in a supposedly pro-Catholic murder, and thus earned the resentment of the suspect, Colonel John Scott. Scott was one of the great rogues of history; although he was not guilty of this murder, he was guilty of at least one other. He had an international career as swindler, embezzler, spy, and forger, and was a coward in the army to boot. No one should have listened to this consummate rascal when he accused Pepys of selling secrets to Catholic France (which actually Scott himself had attempted to do), but the courts were themselves fretting over Catholic plotting and had condemned unfairly and executed "plotters" before Pepys had his turn. It was inherently difficult to fight a charge of treason, and the charges against Pepys were so broad that no alibi could pertain. Pepys also had to fight the charge of being a Catholic.
Pepys was able to demonstrate his innocence, and the case started to unravel even before it could come to trial, as Scott murdered a cab driver who wanted to be paid. Scott deftly skipped punishment for this offense, and somehow returned to the Caribbean and became Speaker of the Montserrat Assembly. Pepys's career and reputation revived, but he did not have the satisfaction of seeing Scott prosecuted for perjury, and never knew how Scott had actually been treasonably working for the French. This astonishing, almost epic, story of the sort of witch-hunting that is more familiar to us in other times and places is masterfully told. The father in the Long's authorship team has written historical novels, and the book conveys excitement, reading often like a convoluted spy novel (though no author could have invented Colonel Scott; he is too fantastic). Anyone familiar with the Pepys of the diaries, or with Restoration history, or with the hold that conspiracy theories can have upon a public and upon a government, will find this bizarre story fascinating.
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