The 1660s represent a turning point in English history & for the main events
- the Restoration the Dutch War the Great Plague the Fire of London
- Pepys provides a definitive eyewitness account. Along with lively descriptions of his socializing his amorous entanglements his theater-going & music-making. Unequaled for its frankness high spirits & sharp observations the diary is both a literary masterpiece & a marvelous portrait of 17th-century life.