Persian Letters (Penguin Classics)

'A sort of novel' is how Montesquieu described his Persian Letters, and indeed a narrative emerges from this collection of letters written and received by two Persian travelers in Europe. Its setting is the correspondence between Usbek and the wives in his harem and the eunuchs who guard them. But Montesquieu used this sugar of oriental eroticism to coat a very different pill, for the real subject of the book is his reflections, sometimes witty, sometimes profound, on almost every field of intellectual and human interest: on the diversity of manners and customs, on sexual freedom and restraint, religion, and justice and wise government. 342 pages.