Overview

The Diary of Samuel Pepys is the most celebrated personal journal in the English language. Pepys's 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. This book focuses on Pepys's controversial private life and is geared for a contemporary audience by charting his varied and complex relationships with women. These included his wife, Elizabeth--whom he both loved and treated abominably--their domestic servants, the mistresses whom he secretly visited, 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 nineteenth century editions, but all are featured here in completely new transcriptions--with 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, as well as many of his biographers, have deliberately avoided this controversial element of Pepys's reputation.

Full Product Details

9798228781443

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

Guy de la Bédoyère is a historian and author with numerous books to his credit. One of very few authors with the ability to read and use the system of shorthand used by the diarist Samuel Pepys (1633-1703), he edited the letters exchanged by Pepys with the diarist John Evelyn (1620-1706) in Particular Friends: The Correspondence of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn, covering their thirty-eight-year association and friendship. He has also produced the only edition of Pepys's correspondence to be published in modern times in The Letters of Samuel Pepys. Guy lives in Britain. Elliot Fitzpatrick studied acting at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire before going on to appear in theater in London's West End, at Shakespeare's Globe, and with the Rose Theatre Kingston, as well as in international tours across Asia. As an audiobook narrator he has read over fifty titles, including books by Bear Grylls and mountain-climber Nims Purja, and in 2021 was nominated for an Audie for his work on the mystery thriller The Midnight Man by Caroline Mitchell. His voice can be heard in the video games Kings Bounty II and War Tales, as well as commercial work for Starling Bank.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available