On this day, 83 years ago, young Anne Frank received a diary for her birthday. Little did she realise it would become one of the most treasured diaries in literature. Over the years, diaries have played a crucial role in fiction, helping reveal the inner life of their possessors or moving the plot forward. We look at six engaging diaries that became central to their storylines.

James Joyce

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: James Joyce’s classic, published in 1916, features the protagonist Stephen Dedalus’s diary, from his years at the university. He is first seen scribbling notes about aesthetics and beauty in it. Later, readers get a peek into it. Stephen wrestles with his Irish Catholic identity throughout the book. His search for spiritual, intellectual and artistic clarity is reflected in the diary. We become privy to his evolution as a young man and as an artist through it.