The Diary of Samuel Pepys

The Diary of Samuel Pepys, a record of daily life kept by an English government official in the 1660s, is one of the most famous diaries in English literature. Pepys (pronounced “peeps”) kept the journal over a period of 10 years between the ages of 26 and 36, writing the text in shorthand. Later in life, he had his diary bound in six volumes—running to over a million words—but there is no evidence that he intended it to be read by anyone during his lifetime. In the 1820s, a British scholar deciphered Pepys’s shorthand and published the first edition of The Diary of Samuel Pepys; it became an immediate success and is now considered a literary classic.

The diary is valued today as a firsthand document of upper-class life in Restoration England, an eventful period in which Pepys himself played a key role as naval administrator, member of Parliament, and confidant of two of England’s kings. Pepys makes note of what time he got up each morning, his daily schedule of work and leisure, what he ate, and the people he met—many of them belonging to the cream of London society. He presents his candid observations on famous personalities (from the king and queen on down), events both great and small, the theater, music, architecture, science, and fashions, among many other topics.