LETTERS ON ENGLAND - Penguin

Quakers, Parliament, literature, smallpox vaccinations, Presbyterians... With the publication of his Lettres Philosophiques in 1734, Voltaire offered the French public a panoramic view of English culture, and one which exerted a decisive influence upon the development of attitudes to England in eighteenth-century France. Also known as the Lettres anglaises, the book appeared following Voltaire's enforced exile in England between 1726 and 1729. Banned by the French 'parlement' for their criticism of French institutions, the letters depict England as the land of freedom, tolerance and progress, whereas France was still a feudal tyranny and, in religious matters, dogged by medieval superstition. At the same time, however, Voltaire could not resist satirizing the illogical side of English institutions and the book is a fascinating and often very funny account of Britain and the British seen through foreign eyes. - Translated by Leonard Tancock