rising civil servant, Samuel Pepys, who in December 1659 bought the notebook which would become the first volume of his unsurpassed diary, a masterpiece that combined the self-examination of the ancient Greeks, the daily confession of medieval monks, the financial accounting of the Florentines, the public affairs of Marin Sanudo, the travel observations that Francis Bacon recommended, the trivial detail that Jonson had lampooned, and, like Eyre, the discord of an unhappy marriage.
