Persian Letters\Persische Briefe, englische Ausgabe
'Oh! Monsieur is Persian? That's most extraordinary! How
can someone be Persian?'
Two Persian travellers, Usbek and Rica, arrive in Paris just before
the death of Louis XIV and in time to witness the hedonism and
financial crash of the Regency. In their letters home they report
on visits to the theatre and scientific societies, and observe the
manners and flirtations of polite society, the structures of power
and the hypocrisy of religion. Irony and bitter satire mark their
comparison of East and West and their quest for understanding.
Unsettling news from Persia concerning
the female world of the harem intrudes on their new identities and
provides a suspenseful plot of erotic jealousy and passion.
This pioneering epistolary novel and work of travel-writing opened
the world of the West to its oriental visitors and the Orient to
its Western readers. This is the first English translation based on
the original text, revealing this lively work as Montesquieu first
intended.
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Andrew Kahn is University Lecturer in Russian at Oxford University. Margaret Mauldon is the distinguished translator of Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Diderot's Rameau's Nephew, and other works.
