SAMUEL PEPYS' LONDON CHRONICLES : THE CANDID DIARIST PORTRAYS THE RAVAGES OF FIRE AND PLAGUE, THE BAWDY COURT OF CHARLES II, AND HIS OWN ROMPS WITH MAIDS.

In the year 1703, an elderly gentleman named Samuel Pepys (pronounced "peeps") passed away in the London suburb of Clapham. He was wealthy, and a bachelor since his wife had died more than 30 years before. Known to his numerous friends as an amiable and competent connoisseur of music and books, fond of science (but hardly skilled in it), he had once served as a naval administrator. For more than a decade, however, he had been out of office, spending his time assembling materials for a naval history he meant to write (but never did) and performing charitable works. A close acquaintance, mourning him, called him "a very worthy, Industrious & curious person."

Which ...