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Persian Letters (Penguin Classics) by Montesquieu is a philosophy book available to read on EtoBox.

What is Persian Letters (Penguin Classics) about?

The Persian Letters ( Lettres persanes) is perhaps the first great popular work of the European Enlightenment. Conceived around 1717, it was published anonymously in 1721 and enjoyed immediate notoriety. The playwright Marivaux was critical of its ‘false brilliance’ about serious subjects, while the historian and journalist Denis-François Camusat applauded its brilliance but called the contents ‘dangerous’. A cleric, stung by its critical attitude to religion, told Montesquieu that his book ‘would sell like hot cakes’. The prediction was correct, and Montesquieu later noted that booksellers, eager to cash in, implored members of the public to ‘write them some Persian Letters’. The original two slim volumes clearly caught the mood of the moment. Montesquieu now stands as one of the great political thinkers of the modern world. His views on the nature of states and their constitutions had a tangible impact on the world around him. In Russia, Catherine the Great drew on his writing in her legislative reforms of the 1760s, and in America the Founding Fathers looked to his great Spirit of the Laws ( De l’esprit des lois, 1748) in framing their constitution for the new republic. When in

Who reads Persian Letters (Penguin Classics)?

Author

Montesquieu

Publisher

Penguin Books Ltd

Published

2009

Language

EN

ISBN

9780140442816

Category

philosophy

Subjects

Literary Fiction, Romance, Fiction

Rating

3.73 / 5 (3,620 ratings)

Updated

2026-03-14