Persian Letters
Notebook
Montesquieu's first great work, published anonymously in 1721, is an epistolary novel in which two Persian travellers, Usbek and Rica, describe Europe—and especially France—in letters home, while dispatches from Usbek's seraglio unfold a parallel drama of despotism and revolt. Through the device of the 'foreign observer,' Montesquieu satirizes French politics, religion, and manners while probing liberty, tyranny, and cultural difference. Enormously popular, it helped define the Enlightenment spirit of critical, cosmopolitan inquiry.
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