This volume covers only a single year, so it will interest Pepys addicts more than the casual reader, who may prefer to read a single-volume selection of the diaries as a whole. It shows him as a capable and energetic man, working hard at his job in the Admiralty, rebuilding his London house, leading a busy social life, involved in complex legal proceedings about family property, going to plays, and indulging his love of music. This was a mere two years after the restoration of Charles II, of whom there is much gossip - though Pepys was too low-born to have a real footing at court. Much of the charm of the diaries comes from his love of civilised domesticity, and at this time Pepys was still on excellent terms with his wife (there were cloudy periods ahead). The notes are excellent, though there are rather too many of them.