The Persian Letters (Hackett Publishing Co.) - Softcover

Charles De Secondat; Baron De Montesquieu; George R. Healy; Baron De La Brede Et De Montesquieu; George Healy; Montesquieu, Baron De La Brede Et De; Healy, George

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0872204901 ISBN 13: 9780872204904

Publisher: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1999

Synopsis

Based on the 1758 edition, this translation strives for fidelity and retains Montesquieu's paragraphing. George R. Healy's Introduction discusses The Persian Letters as a kind of overture to the Enlightenment, a work of remarkable diversity designed more to explore a problem of great urgency for eighteenth century thought than to resolve it: that of discovering universals, or at least the pragmatic constants, amid the diversity of human culture and society, and of confronting the proposition that there are no values in human relationships except those imposed by force or agreed upon in self-interested conventions.

About this title

Book Description:

This translation of Montesquieu’s unsurpassed epistolary novel, the first to appear in over thirty years, is completely new and aims at being as literal as possible, including pulling no punches with the erotic elements.
     This means that the translators have attempted to render the same word throughout the work as consistently as good sense allows. Nevertheless, due attention has been paid to the beauty of the literary character of the work.This will be the standard translation for years to come.
     Persian Letters journeys across the unending landscape of things human, providing readers the opportunity to think through an astonishing number of themes – mastery and slavery, jealousy, philosophy and tyranny, self-deception, commerce, nature and convention, the best life for a human being, vanity, glory, and human sexuality. Given its fascination with the relationship between Islam and the West, and the power of religion in the world generally, the book is especially timely.
     The volume includes a brilliant introduction by Stuart D. Warner on the philosophical meaning of Persian Letters; a translation of the French index from the 1758 edition, which was the first-ever index of the book, as this edition will be the first-ever index in English; editorial footnotes to help with historical and literary allusions; and a chart detailing the chronological order of the composition of the letters.

About the Author:

George R. Healy is Professor Emeritus of History, College of William and Mary.

About this edition

• Publisher: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0872204901
• ISBN 13: 9780872204904
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320