The Confessions of Samuel Pepys

'A brilliantly entertaining and revealing new transcription of Pepys's diary' Claire Tomalin

A collection of the most personal aspects of Samuel Pepys' diaries, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of their publication

The Diary of Samuel Pepys is the most celebrated personal journal in the English language. His candid revelations as he forged his career as a civilian naval official in Restoration London have fascinated readers ever since the first selection was published in 1825.

The Confessions of Samuel Pepys focuses on Pepys's controversial private life for a contemporary readership, by charting his varied and complex relationships with women. They included his wife Elizabeth, whom he both loved and treated abominably, their domestic servants, the mistresses whom he secretly visited in Westminster and Deptford, and other places, a host of other opportunistic encounters, the great ladies of the court whom he ogled, and the actresses and other female friends whose company he delighted in and combined with casual flirting and petting. All these he recounted in shorthand, often disguising the more salacious occasions in his own cryptic Franco-Latino polyglot or with a primitive system of extraneous consonants.

Most of these controversial entries were excised from 19th century editions, but all are featured here in completely new transcriptions and Pepys's secret code translated, following fresh forensic examination, from the original shorthand diary. The Confessions of Samuel Pepys also reveals how all previous transcribers of the diary and many of his biographers have deliberately massaged Pepys's reputation.