The Strange History of Samuel Pepys's Diary

Engagingly explores the creation, publication, and reception of England's most famous diary.

Kate Loveman (Author)

9781009554114, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 April 2025

254 pages
23.6 x 16.1 x 2 cm, 0.51 kg

'Kate Loveman has written a book that knows exactly what it is about. It is written with complete clarity, it is organised intelligibly, and it keeps us turning the pages with its skilful and thorough storytelling.' Rowan Williams, New Statesman

During the 1660s, Samuel Pepys kept a secret diary full of intimate details and political scandal. Had the contents been revealed, they could have destroyed his marriage, ended his career, and seen him arrested. This engaging book explores the creation of the most famous journal in the English language, how it came to be published in 1825, and the many remarkable roles it has played in British culture since then. Kate Loveman – one of the few people who can read Pepys's shorthand – unlocks the riddles of the diary, investigating why he chose to preserve such private matters for later generations. She also casts fresh light on the women and sexual relationships in Pepys's life and on Black Britons living in or near his household. Exploring the many inventive uses to which the diary has been put, Loveman shows how Pepys's history became part of the history of the nation.

Conventions
Chronology
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Writing the diary
2. Shorthand and secrecy
3. Saving the diary
4. First publication
5. Victorian Pepys
6. War and the diary
7. 'Every last obscenity': complete and online
8. Reading against the grain
Afterword.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]