Walter Isaacson said that Ben Franklin was the Founding Father ‘that winks at us’. This is the only complete edition available it is as close to Pepys's original as possible. This edition, first published in 1970, is the first in which the entire diary is printed with systematic comment. In none of the earlier versions was there a reliable, full text, with commentary and notation with any claim to completeness. His flair for gossip and detail reveals a portrait of the times that rivals the most swashbuckling and romantic historical novels. He was a patron of the arts, having himself composed many delightful songs and participated in the artistic life of London. Pepys witnessed the London Fire, the Great Plague, the Restoration of Charles II, and the Dutch Wars.
The Diary deals with some of the most dramatic events in English history.
In spite of its significance, all previous editions were inadequately edited and suffered from a number of omissions-until Robert Latham and William Matthews went back to the 300-year-old original manuscript and deciphered each passage and phrase, no matter how obscure or indiscreet. His Diary is one of the principal sources for many aspects of the history of its period. Samuel Pepys is as much a paragon of literature as Chaucer and Shakespeare.
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