The Diary of Samuel Pepys: A Selection

‘But Lord, what a sad sight it was by moonlight to see the whole City almost on fire’

The 1660s represent a turning point in English history, and for the main events – the Restoration, the Dutch War, the Great Plague and the Fire of London – Pepys provides a definitive eyewitness account. As well as recording public and historical events, Pepys paints a vivid picture of his personal life, from his socializing and amorous entanglements, to theatre going and his work at the Navy Board. Unequalled for its frankness, high spirits and sharp observations, the diary is both a literary masterpiece and a marvellous portrait of seventeenth-century life.

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED AS THE SHORTER PEPYS