The Strange History of Samuel Pepys's Diary

by Kate Loveman

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.

Genres: History, British Literature, Diary

252 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 24, 2025

Reviews

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have heard about Samuel Pepys and his diary off and on for years and actually have Claire Tomalin’s biography of Pepys to read but haven’t yet read any of the actual diary. When I saw The Strange History of Samuel Pepys’s Diary available at NetGalley, I just had to request it. And I got an early copy to read. As I’ve done with other highly detailed nonfiction books, I chose to read this slowly, the better to understand the chronology of the diary’s creation, Pepys’s life, and the many episodes involved in the publication of the diary to bring it to the public.

Pepys wrote his diary daily throughout the 1660s, documenting his activities related to his work with the naval department and also very detailed descriptions of his activities throughout the day…and night. He has become famous as a witness of both the plague and the Great Fire of London as he stayed in the city through both and documented what he experienced. He also became famous for the “naughty bits” which were largely hinted at in the first printing in 1825. He was an infamous womanizer. Pepys had used a personal shorthand to hide most of the details of his assignations. Of course, those who were rich enough to afford the full translation at the time did get a little more detail, details not felt right for average people of that time.

The publishing struggle over the past 200 years, since the first publication was attempted, has been which parts of this huge work to publish, what to do with the sections written in shorthand and how to treat those descriptions of his womanizing. While more recently, in the 1960s and 1970s, the concern was for dealing with obscenity laws, in the 19th century, the concern was for the possible corruption of the common man even without a full translation. Of course, most translations over those 200 years were too expensive for the common folk. But now it’s online! You can read daily installments.

This is more of an academic book than I had anticipated but was very interesting. I intend to continue my readings of Pepys and about him and his world. There are both footnotes and a bibliography provided. If you’re interested in the time, Pepys and/or London or England of the time, this book may well be of interest. It’s also an interesting look at the history of publishing.

Thanks to Cambridge University Press and NetGalley for an eARC of this book. This review reflects my views.

[Theediscerning · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a phrase here about people having "altogether too much fun with Pepys and his diary" – that is worth bearing in mind before you buy this. If you know anything about the book, about the randiness that had to be suppressed for centuries, and so on, you may think it is a scurrilous history of plagues, Great Fires, bonking and everything else that might have happened in the 1660s. It's doubtful the hundred reading hours the thing takes would give you that if you sought it, and this certainly doesn't. It's a fair bit more academic than I had assumed it to be when requesting a download review copy.

The first chapter decides that the audience for Pepys' diary was, well, not us but Pepys – both the Pepys a few months down the line needing to justify some expense, some decision, or some flooze, or to have it on record what the state of things was in case someone questioned his judgements at work; and the Pepys of many years later, looking back. Chapter two looks at the wheres and whys of it being in shorthand – the tidy, bottom-justified shorthand of someone planning his visual neatness and appeal, and also going great guns to keep some of the opinions and sexual dalliances secret. Then we see how risky the diary was, not just for his marital reputation but for all the politics and royal troubles of the decades – and how it was still kept as part of Pepys' collection of papers, virtually ending up with his naval history documents he bequeathed to Cambridge University.

We then finally see the thing in print – the first, bowdlerised edition in 1825 the probable reason for this book to come out exactly 200 years later. Here is the process and the response alike – the secrecy of the debate as to how much to include for the public, partly because nobody but the bloke to turn it all into longhand had read it all in decades, and the debate about how valuable a historical document it actually was. Next are the later years – the time when new editions were slowly drip-feeding the reader with the previously edited chunks, while those who didn't know they should be Victorian prudes were valiantly chasing the gossip about what had been left out.

It's meaty stuff next, as we juggle the perceptions of Pepys – is he the man who saved the navy, and was diligently on the right side of history, a writer who made one of the most basic, accidentally humorous journals out there, or a wife-beater who could by today's terms be called a serial rapist? However intentionally funny or not Pepys was, you must think he would have enjoyed the stirring parodies of his diaries that both world wars saw – less so, Benny Hill's take on his philanderings. We then go on to the modern era, where – because over a million words of the Pepys is not enough – we have online presentations of it in daily entries, complete with a wiki kind of notation, making it even more laborious to absorb. At least the full, unexpurgated – if not fully 'translated' – version is in existence.

We close, as this is modern academe and it's the law, with a look at women and black characters, and what the diary says and doesn't say about them. The fact Pepys employed coloured servants that were presumably his "property" as slaves was certainly something I learnt from this, but I think by far the bigger take from it all is that he really should have kept himself to himself. I think it a sign of his standing however – or the standing we've given him in between Charley 2 and Charley 3 – that I've happily read a fairly heavy tome about a book I'd never have the intention of reading. I'd never read such a companion to something like "War and Peace", which is a lightweight at half the length of the Pepys.

This is readable, and engaging, and purposeful and sensible – it's certainly not nearly as scurrilous as the worst of us, like me, might have thought. It feels definitive in taking us from the initial scribing to the wish to have a digitised copy of the echt deal online for all, and yes, it certainly covers a lot of topics. Just none of them are particularly headline-worthy. Still, I happily feel that's that subject thoroughly ticked off, and so to – oh, where was it again?

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to NetGalley and Cambridge University Press for an advance copy of this book that serves as a profile of a man and a biography of his diary, one that has captivated readers over the years, and one that still is a puzzle to many scholars.

At the early part of the century I had a job at a magazine that I had drive to everyday. The commute was long, and my car was old, with only a cassette deck for entertainment. My library as usual had me covered, offering lots of classics on tape, which was a a godsend. It was here I was introduced to the diarist Samuel Pepys. The tape was long, but I was captivated by the reader, and what he was saying. The mix of ordinary affairs, outside of marriage affairs, and brushes with greatness kept me entertained for almost two weeks, and added a new term to my vernacular "And so to bed.", which I still continue to say. Since my introduction I have read quite a few books on Pepys, but most of those focus on the man and his times. This book is more of a look at why Pepys wrote his diary, something very daring for the times, how he wrote it, and how the diary has been presented to the world. With a lot of details that have been passed over. The Strange History of Samuel Pepys’s Diary by Kate Loveman is a biography of a book that shouldn't have been, and how even after all these years details are still being discovered, and how this changes our understanding of a man we thought we knew.

Samuel Pepys was a man who was self-made in many ways, and would be remembered in history for his works with the British Navy, if he was remembered at all. The reason we know Pepys is because one day Pepys started a diary, and kept it through a very momentous time in British history. The diary began with events of the day, how much money was spent, how he dealt with work problems, his wife's family and how his house was run. Pepys also wrote of his exploits outside of marriage, using a variety of foreign terms to explain encounters with the help, actresses, his wife's friends, and the occasional sex worker. Why Pepys would do this has always been a mystery. The book was written in a shorthand that was similar to what was being taught to young men in England, with a few variations, but nothing a determined person couldn't figure out. As England was going through a particularly tumultuous time, one that Pepys was very Zelig like in covering, a diary like this would be exhibit one in and case brought against him.

As I wrote I have read a few other books about Pepys but this is the first that looks at the diary for what it is. Something that really stand out as something uncommon. Historians have drawn much from it as Pepys was living in a very interesting time, and found himself at lot of key points. However it is the mundane, the money spent, the food eaten, the little things that interest scholars as much as his observation of the death of kings, the restoration of a monarchy, and the Great Fire of London. Loveman covers the history of the diary, explains the shorthand that Pepys uses and how the diary has been presented to the public. Loveman also looks at the darker aspects that many choose to gloss over, or giggle bout the French terms that Pepys uses to discuss his dalliances. Some of which in modern eyes seem much darker and far more violent than many have portrayed them.
I learned quite a bit from this book, and find myself of two minds about the man behind the words. Loveman is a very good writer, and is able to tell the reader much about the work that was both new and very understandable. If one has an interest in Pepys this will raise and answer a lot of questions.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my reading I kept hearing about this Pepys Diary. I was susceptible to looking into books I heard about and when I saw a three volume set of the diary in a downtown Philadelphia used book store I purchased it. I read it over a few years. Later I learned about a new edition of the complete diary and my husband purchased the volumes as gifts. I read from the diary nightly over two or three years. I liked ending my day with “And so to bed.”

My favorite aspect of the diary was learning about life in Restoration London. How Pepys took a boat on the Thames to travel or hired a link to light the way home on moonless nights. How he went to court to watch the king dine and knew about the king’s many mistresses. How he adopted wearing a wig or ordered a new suit, and how on wash day Elizabeth had to hang the wet linens throughout the house to dry. His rivalries with Sir William Penn and others. Learning about the Great Fire and plague. Yes, of course, there was Pepys own indiscretions and betrayals. Which, apparently, has been the most famous–or, rather, infamous, part of his diary.

I figured the diary had always been known about. I knew that the Wheatley edition I first read was edited. I had never considered how the diary, written in shorthand, came to be made public in the first place.

Pepys’s journal is the first surviving English diary to track days from start to finish and also the first to move day by day across its entire run. from The Strange History of Samuel Pepys’s Diary

The history of the diary is far more complicated than I had expected.

Loveman considers why Pepys wrote the diary in the first place. He did not destroy it when he was being accused of treason although what it contained was a liability. The diary was as part of his library willed to his alma mater; did he expect others to read it, and if so, why?

The diary was not published in any form until 1825. Before that, a scholar would have needed to go to the library at Magdalene and read it in shorthand. The transcriber was in effect also an editor, omitting ‘objectionable’ passages. It was a success.

The Bright’s edition went back to the diary to transcribe the shorthand.

In the late 1890s, Henry B. Wheatley’s edition also omitted objectionable passages. He promoted the diary as ‘comic entertainment.’ The diary became popular, with spin offs and parodies.

The first edition to include the complete diary–objectionable material included–was the Latham and Matthews eleven volume set, which I have read.


Loveman then turns her attention to the objectionable material from a 21st c viewpoint. Many of Pepys’s sexual encounters were NOT consensual, and from his own words, appear to have been rape. She also considers the position of ‘blackmores’ and slaves in the diary and reveals that Pepys was a slave owner and economically benefiting from slavery.

I appreciated her tracing the changing views of the diary from comedy to insights into a society that condoned behavior we find reprehensible today.

Pepys has never been an admirable man in all aspects, and, trutfully, that is one of the attractions of the diary. In the end, his wife confronted and threatened him and he pledged to change his ways. Somehow, I am not convinced the pledge stuck. But we will never know.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.

[Christy fictional_traits · Rating 4 out of 5]

'...Pepys - a naval administrator, gossip, clotheshorse, and routinely unfaithful husband - has come to stand as both a personification of the Restoration period, and when needed, as a manifestation of an enduring national character'.

Samuel Pepys wrote a diary for many years. That may sound quite ordinary but given it was in the 1660s and he wrote about all manner of things, spilling the tea on colleagues, his marriage, his philandering ways as well as royalty and London at large, made it very unique. So personal were his musings that even when they were translated from shorthand, for publication some 200 years later, it could simply not be published in full. The value of Pepy's diary to social history is in not only what he noted but also, as Loveman carefully lays out for the reader, what he didn't say. Indeed, his decision to write a diary for so many years and have them bequeathed to Magdalene College upon his death, warrants consideration in and of itself.

The Strange History of Samuel Pepys's Diary is a well-researched insight not only into Pepys but also the times he lived in. Although readers who are more academically inclined, or have a special interest in Restoration England will glean much from this book, it is an accessible read to anyone interested in social history or history in general.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

My mum bought the Wheatley edition in a nice old binding, from our favourite bookshop - Scarthin Books. She read them all, cover to cover, and still dips into them sometimes. After seeing a review for this strange history I ordered (from Scarthin books again) so I could pass it on to her. I've never read any of the diary myself, and don't intend to, but I found this thoroughly interesting.

Goodreads reviewer Theediscerning has covered most of what I want to say (thank you) and I just have to add how lovely the actual printed hardcover book is. Beautiful coloured end papers, excellent clear typeface and when you open the book it stays open: a real pleasure to the eye and hand. Thank you Cambridge university Press and the author.

[Brigette · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I requested this book I did think it would be the diary itself with some commentary, so I was happily surprised that this is a book that deep dives into all things Pepys. The author begins by setting up the world that Pepys was in when he wrote the diary, and the shorthand was hard to read and translate for most.

The book has descriptions of how he kept his diary secret from others who might read it, and how the archive was preserved and the history of the publication which was sometimes more censored. Of particular interest is how society has viewed his diary over time, and reading against the grain of Pepys text. Very interesting book!

[Jacqueline Nyathi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently found one of my old diaries, from when I was 15. That person is so foreign to me now, that everything I read was new to me again, almost fictional. I know (or suspect) that while writing I was projecting a self I probably wasn’t, as many of us do when faced with the self-consciousness you get when writing to the future about yourself—the spotlight of that blank page. It’s one reason I kind of admire Samuel Pepys’s nerve... But perhaps he was projecting a self, too.

I had some exposure to Pepys’s diary before reading this book, but not a lot—some from cultural diffusion, and some from following the [Bluesky bot](https://bsky.app/profile/samuelpepys....) that posts entries linked to pepysdiary.com, a long-running project that Loveman explains at some length in the book. Which is to say: You don’t have to have read the diary (as Loveman explains, most people, even some who claim to have transcribed it of it, have not) to find *The Strange History of Samuel Pepys’s Diary* fascinating, which it is.

Pepys (pronounced Peeps, I learnt from Loveman) is known for the secret diary (or series of diaries) he kept for a decade in the 1660s—yes, that’s “16”, not “19”—detailing political scandal and also [naughty](https://doinghistoryinpublic.org/2025...) details of his and other people’s sexual exploits. It serves, above all, as an insider’s record of the Restoration period in England. Pepys was connected to the Stuarts through his patron, and was at one point Chief Secretary to the Admiralty. He was also, although not explored in this book, an apparent fashionista.

Loveman says “the early editions of Pepys’s journal fuelled the development of what would now be termed ‘social history’,” a fascinating claim. It made historians pay attention to not just the big events of the world and the big men who made history, but also the daily lives of ordinary people. Pepys is also the reason we know what it was like to experience the Great Fire of London, as well as what it was like to live through the plague of 1665—both events recorded in his diary.

Loveman begins with a painstaking explanation of why most people have not, in fact, read the real diary: It was written in Pepys’s idiosyncratic version of shorthand, which only a couple of people in the centuries since have deciphered (Loveman is one). Access to the original diary (bequeathed to and kept at Magdalene College, Cambridge, England) has also, so far, been restricted to just a few people. The first “transcription”—more accurately a translation and much redacted and censored—was published in 1825, “a very limited selection chosen by Lord Braybrooke”; and there exists only one complete edition of the diary, published in a series of volumes from 1970 to 1976: that of Robert Latham and William Matthews (a great story on its own). Most modern editions, including pepysdiary.com, are based on Wheatley’s censored 1890s edition (Loveman points out that this is mostly because it’s out of copyright, and therefore freely available).

Loveman ends the main section of the book with a chapter, Reading Against the Grain, on what we don’t see in the diary—namely, how Pepys’s exploits affected his wife, Elizabeth, and (may have) hurt the women he pursued (including non-consensual sex). In fact, Loveman points out, the power discrepancy between Pepys and many of these women means it’s likely his advances didn’t come from a place of mutual interest (apart from, notably, his dalliance with Mrs Bagwell, who wanted a promotion for her husband—but how Pepys navigated that is problematic, too). Secondly, there is the presence in their absence of Black people, who we now know were very much part of London and English life at that time. There is fascinating detail tracking a man named Isay William Mingo, at first enslaved, but who later found freedom.

In summary, this is a great read on a subject I did not think I would find this engrossing. *The Strange History of Samuel Pepys’s Diary* is the best kind of monograph—detailed and engaging. Highly recommended.

Thank you to Cambridge University Press and NetGalley for early access. *And so to bed.*