For modern readers, the diary often gives fascinating insight into social and cultural changes for example, in the diary’s first year Pepys notes the arrival in England of a new drink, “tee” (tea).Īs a diarist, Pepys is honest about his own faults and failings, including his sometimes-uncontrolled temper and his extramarital dalliances. 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. 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. 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.
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