The Persian Letters [Paperback]

This richly evocative novel-in-letters tells the story of two Persian noblemen who have left their country—the modern Iran—to journey to Europe in search in wisdom. As they travel, they write home to wives and eunuchs in the harem and to friends in France and elsewhere. Their colorful observations on the culture differences between West and East conjure up Eastern sensuality, repression, and cruelty in contrast to the freer, more civilized West—but here also unworthy nobles and bishops, frivolous women in fashion, and conceited people of all kinds are satirized. Storytellers as well as letter-writers, Montesquieu’s Usbek and Rica are disrespectful and witty, but also serious moralists.Persian Letterswas asuccès de scandalein Paris society, and encapsulates the libertarian, critical spirit of the early eighteenth century.

C. J. Betts’s translation conveys the color of the original, and his introduction examines the inner meanings of Montesquieu’s satire. This edition also includes explanatory notes, appendices, and suggestions for further reading.Charles-Louis de Secondatwas born in 1689 at La Brède, near Bordeaux, into an eminent family of parlementaires. His mother died when he was ten and Charles-Louis was sent to Paris to be educated and completed a law degree in Bordeaux in 1708. He returned to Paris in order to finish his education, staying until his father died in 1713. In 1714 he became a councilor at the Bordeaux Parlement and a year later married a Huguenot lady, Jeanne de Lartigue, probably for her money. They had three children. A year after their marriage Charles-Louis inherited the barony of Montesquieu and the post of président à mortier at the Bordeaux Parlement and five years later, in 1721, he published anonymously in Holland thePersian Letters, which ran into ten editions in one year. From 1721 to 1725 he lived in Paris frequenting fashionable societyló(