THE STRANGE HISTORY OF SAMUEL PEPYS'S DIARY

And so to bed.

The Diary of Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) remains one of the greatest works of personal prose writing in the English language. Offering insights into politics, reviewing theatrical and musical performances, and chronicling Pepys’ loves and lusts, the diary offers a unique record of a man and nation at the end of the 17th century. This book by Loveman, a British scholar, tells the fascinating story of how Pepys developed a secret shorthand to encode his thoughts, how the text was discovered and deciphered at the beginning of the 19th century, and how the diary, still today, shocks and inspires. During the Victorian age, it had an indelible impact on the changing notions of what it meant to be English at the time. “To imagine Victorian England through the eyes of Pepys meant enjoying English eccentricities and appreciating continuities with the past,” Loveman writes. Pepys’ famous description of the 1666 Great Fire of London shaped a sense of tragedy and adventure for generations. Of course, the most salacious parts of the diary were excised for decades, and it wasn’t until editions of the late 20th century were published that readers could find “every last obscenity” in all its glory. Today, the diary still resonates. Pepys’ explicitly recorded sexual exploits creepily anticipate the wandering hands of modern-day transgressors. We also experience natural disasters through his eyes; Loveman quotes a Southern California man who, evacuating from a fire in 2009, thought of “Sam taking the money, plate and ‘best things’” and feeling what “Sam must have felt when he saw the pigeons fall.” Pepys lived the most vivid of lives, and the beauty and horror of his time speak to our own.

A fluently written history of The Diary of Samuel Pepys, its influence on English culture, and its lessons for today.