He wore one of the first periwigs in England. Watching executions was a practice he would follow all his life. As a boy of 15 he had wagged school on Tuesday, Januto go to Whitehall and see Charles I, that royal actor, lose his head. Even without the diaries Pepys would have been worthy of a biography. For various reasons, including the bawdy, the diaries were not transcribed and published in a full, unexpurgated version until 1970. But no one over the centuries was aware of the diaries' key stacked nearby. He included near them a copy of Sheldon's Tachygraphy (speed-writing) which he had used for his shorthand. He wrote the six volumes of his diaries in shorthand and before his death hid them among his vast library, clearly intending they should be found, transcribed and distributed. We know all this because Pepys wrote a diary for 10 years from January 1, 1660, writing of many things, as Claire Tomalin says in her biography, including his bowel movements and ejaculations. "Compulsive womaniser" is probably right, but Pepys was frequently racked with guilt about his conquests and alleviated his remorse by buying his unsuspecting wife presents as compensation. "Don Juan" suggests repeated success, but Pepys often failed in the pursuit. "Lothario" is too dashing, because Pepys often chased after the tawdry. "Libertine" sounds uncaring, but Pepys always cared for his wife. Reviewed by KEN LARSEN* It's difficult to find the right word to describe Samuel Pepys, the most famous of 17th-century diarists.
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