The Diary thus became known, and acclaimed as an English classic, the Victorian age. The Diary was first deciphered and published (in part) in 1825 a series more careful and complete versions followed through the 19th century, though all were expurgated. In the event, his eyesight held out until his death at 70 (in 1703), though he never kept an intimate diary again. After nine years the strain of using this crabbed cipher helped convince him he was going blind and induced him to break off his record. That he should compile such a monstrous life‐record, in an age that placed a relatively low value on private experience, is extraordinary still more so that he should be able to conceal the monster's existence from his family, his friends, and even his wife.įor privacy, he usually wrote up his diary late at night, ana in a torm of shorthand that would have baffled prying eyes. From 1660 to 1669 Samuel Pepys, the ambitious young Secretary to Navy Board, described his daily activities in one and a quarter million words of prose.
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