{"product_id":"the-diary-of-a-country-parson-the-reverend-james-woodforde-1758-1781-in-five-volumes","title":"The Diary of a Country Parson: The Reverend James Woodforde. 1758-1781. in Five Volumes.","description":"Complete in five volumes. ix, [3], 364; xvi, 392;' xiv, 423, [1]; xiii, [1], 355, [1]; xiv, 449, [3] pp. Frontispiece and black-and-white plates, fourth volume includes a fold-out map of Norfolk following text. \"Woodforde was a very ordinary man. He read little, and his exclusively classical education left only the faintest impression on his mind. His one outstanding characteristic is that he wrote his diary, the work of a lifetime. After the first few weeks he settled down to making an entry each day, and kept this up for forty-three years. The diary was unknown until selections were published by Oxford University Press under the title The Diary of a Country Parson (5 vols., 1924–31). In this edition Woodforde was made into a semi-comic figure, acquiring a reputation he has never quite lost. Food and drink were given so much editorial prominence that an unwary reader might well be left with the impression that Woodforde produced little more than a chronicle of gluttony. Later work on the diary has shown that its great virtue lies in its value as primary source material for the social and domestic history of its era and, for the general reader, in the incomparably vivid picture of country life and manners. Woodforde's manner of writing—one hesitates to call it a style—is the opposite of the antithetical, heavily Latinized literary prose of its time. It is very plain, simple, and lucid, having more in common with the speech rhythms of its day than with the elaboration of fine writing.\" - R.L. Winstanley, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography","brand":"Humphrey Milford \/ Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":29417018556486,"sku":"2290584","price":125.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1232\/9510\/products\/2290584.jpg?v=1571427162","url":"https:\/\/ym-demo.myshopify.com\/products\/the-diary-of-a-country-parson-the-reverend-james-woodforde-1758-1781-in-five-volumes","provider":"Yesterday's Muse","version":"1.0","type":"link"}