The Secret Diary of Mr. Pips: Life of a 17th-Century English Gentleman By Akira Usuda (Iwanami Shinsho 206) This book, using the vast diary of Samuel Pepys, a 17th-century English civil servant and diarist, offers a clear and intelligent portrayal of the life of a gentleman living in Restoration London. Pepys' diary records with astonishing frankness not only historical events such as the Great Fire of London and the plague, but also the process by which the modern individual's inner self was formed, including his ambitions at work, his sense of money, his social life, his married life, his sexual desires, and his wavering faith. This book carefully interprets the "secret diary" not merely as a source of gossip, but as an important text in the intellectual history of modern Europe and diary literature. The author, Akira Usuda, portrays Pepys not as a "great man" or a "hero," but as a very human being, and reveals how the emotions, desires, and anxieties of an individual living within the bureaucratic system were recorded in everyday language. This perspective naturally transcends the boundaries of literature, history, and thought, and combines the pleasure of reading with intellectual stimulation. This is a masterpiece of Iwanami Shinsho, recommended for those interested in English literature, diary literature, modern history, and the history of thought, as well as readers interested in "how the individual came to write about the 'self'." #TheSecretDiaryofMrPips #AkiraUsuda #SamuelPepys #IwanamiShinsho #DiaryLiterature #EnglishLiterature #BritishHistory #ModernHistory #HistoryofThought #LiteratureLover #Shinsho (New Books) #Humanities