The Diary of Samuel Pepys

In two volumes: Volume One. 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 socialising and amorous entanglements, to his theatre-going and his work at the Navy Board. Unequaled for its frankness, high spirits and sharp observations, the diary is both a literary masterpiece and a marvellous portrait of seventeenth-century life.