This is the raw, unfiltered voice of Restoration London. In the autumn of 1663, Pepys records his mornings at the Admiralty office, the seamen's growing unrest, the Queen's uncertain health, and the endless negotiations of court. But what makes this diary indispensable is not just the history. It is the man himself. Pepys is vain, anxious, ambitious, and astonishingly honest. He frets over his wife's mood, boasts of his influence, and records the scandals of his age with the glee of a gossip columnist. Four centuries later, his shorthand has been decoded, and we are granted access to one of the most intimate self-portraits in English literature. Here is a man writing for no one but himself, and in doing so, capturing an entire era.
