“The Ladies‪”‬

Elizabeth Pepys has a journal of her own—and when she gets a glimpse of her husband Samuel’s secret one, she discovers the terrible insult hidden in his private thoughts: “Beaste.”

In Restoration London, Samuel is prospering at the Navy Office, while Elizabeth keeps house, watches the household accounts, and wonders why his purse seems readier for his own fine clothes than for hers. Her sharp, affectionate diary catches a marriage full of quarrels, reconciliations, jealous glances and small domestic victories; but Samuel’s journal is written in secret, and Elizabeth is determined to read it. As she seeks help to crack his code, the comedy of their daily life takes on a sly edge: what else has her husband kept from her—and what might she choose to do with the truth?

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