Persian Letters

Contents

1. Some Reflections on the Persian Letters 5 min 11

   Montesquieu’s defence of the book, written for the 1754 edition. He claims a hidden chain links the letters, praises the letter form for mixing philosophy with romance, notes the rush of imitations, and pleads that the remarks on religion express only Persian astonishment.

2. Introduction 4 min 6

   The anonymous preface of 1721. The author poses as a mere translator who lodged the Persians, copied their letters and intercepted some. He insists on staying unknown, since a serious man would be blamed for such a book, and he jokes about how easily Asians learn French manners.

3. 1–20 Letters I–XX 1 h 6 min 39

   Usbek and Rica leave Isfahan in 1711 and cross Turkey to Smyrna. Usbek explains that he fled enemies at court, and from the start he rules his seraglio through the eunuchs; his wives write of longing and jealousy, and the chief eunuch confesses the rage and power of his station. Answering Mirza on whether happiness lies in virtue, Usbek tells the fable of the Troglodytes, a people destroyed by self-interest and refounded on justice, who finally ask for a king. Usbek questions a mollah about ritual purity, describes Ottoman decay and rebukes Zachi.

4. 21–40 Letters XXI–XL 1 h 1 min 47

   The travellers reach Paris in 1712. Rica sketches the king as a magician who makes paper pass for money, the Pope as a greater one, and the quarrel over the Bull Unigenitus. Further letters treat the theatre, the Pope and bishops, the Inquisition, Parisian curiosity (“How can anybody be a Persian?”), coffee-houses and quarrels over Homer, and the old Louis XIV. Usbek praises Roxana’s modesty, Rica weighs the liberty of women, and the seraglio letters show Usbek’s threats and his eunuchs’ cares.

5. 41–60 Letters XLI–LX 1 h 11 min 24

   In the seraglio a slave resists forced castration and the wives travel under guard. In Paris, Usbek describes the three privileged orders, a country house full of types (a farmer-general, a confessor, a poet, an old soldier, a seducer), and a casuist who sells easy roads to heaven. Rica meets an alchemist, ageing coquettes and two would-be wits who form a partnership. A Persian envoy describes Peter the Great’s Muscovy. Usbek urges that religion means good citizenship, and he praises Europe’s new toleration of Jews and Protestants.

6. 61–80 Letters LXI–LXXX 1 h 19 min 37

   An ecclesiastic explains the burdens of clerical zeal; Zelis confines her seven-year-old daughter and tells Usbek she is freer than he; the chief eunuch asks for a free hand to restore order by fear. Ibben sends the tale of Apheridon and Astarte, Zoroastrian siblings who marry, are sold into slavery and are freed. Rica mocks a magistrate who sold his library and the Academy. Usbek argues for divine ignorance of free acts and for a right to suicide, discusses slavery and Christian princes, legislators and paternal power. A letter from Spain satirises Spanish pride.

7. 81–100 Letters LXXXI–C 59 min 29

   Letters of 1715–17, around the death of Louis XIV. Usbek argues that mild government and proportionate punishment work better than terror, that justice is an eternal relation independent even of God, and that religious toleration enriches a state. He also sets out a law of nations that allows only defensive wars. Rica satirises French talkers, courts, visitors and fashion; the point of honour and the duel show nobility and law at odds. The Regent overturns the old king’s will through the Parlement, a fake Persian ambassador embarrasses both courts, and the chief eunuch’s letter recalls the seraglio waiting at Ispahan.

8. 101–120 Letters CI–CXX 1 h 8 min 29

   Letters of 1717–18 on law, government and population. Rica mocks France’s borrowed Roman and canon law and a bishop defending the bull Unigenitus. Usbek contrasts European monarchy with eastern despotism, whose rulers fall to a single assassin, and reports the English doctrine that obedience rests on benefits received. Rhedi and Usbek debate whether the arts corrupt, and Usbek defends luxury as the source of work and revenue. Rhedi then claims the world has lost nine-tenths of its people, and Usbek blames moral causes: polygamy and eunuchs, the ban on divorce, clerical celibacy, the slave trade, and primogeniture.

9. 121–140 Letters CXXI–CXL 1 h 9 min 40

   Letters of 1718–20. Usbek finishes the depopulation sequence with hunting peoples, colonies, Spanish conquest and the claim that mild, equal government multiplies people. Satires follow on court pensions, paradise, quidnuncs, a geometer and a translator, and a monk’s library of scripture, mystics, casuists and poets. Rhedi traces European liberty to Greek republics and the free Germanic conquerors and opposes it to Asian despotism. From 1719 John Law’s System dominates the letters: a coffee-house of the ruined and enriched, the Regency’s councils, and a world turned upside down. The Parlement is exiled to Pontoise.

10. 141–161 Letters CXLI–CLXI 1 h 21 min 43

    The last letters, 1720. Rica translates a Persian tale in which a murdered wife enjoys a heavenly seraglio of men and her emissary frees her husband’s wives. A learned antiquary’s fable satirises Law as the son of Aeolus selling wind to Betica. Further letters mock talismans and religious books, describe the hardships of scholars, and condemn the moral ruin spread by the System. Meanwhile the seraglio collapses. Usbek’s orders arrive late, eunuchs die or fail, Solim’s terror follows, and the wives protest. Roxana, discovered with a lover, kills herself and reveals that her submission was always a mask.