Letters on England
Voltaire 1733
These letters describe English religion, science, and public life through the eyes of a French visitor. A visit to the London stock exchange shows people of different faiths trading together.
131 pages 2h 32m reading time
- A founding work of the French Enlightenment, the 18th century movement that put reason and freedom at the center of public life.
- Argues that England's religious tolerance, limited royal power, and respect for trade made it freer and richer than France.
- Presents the ideas of Isaac Newton and John Locke as models of clear thinking, and praises the English practice of protecting people from smallpox by deliberately giving them a mild case.
- Brought Newton's science and Locke's thought to a wide French audience and helped them spread across Europe.
- Set a pattern for later Enlightenment writers, who praised another country's freedoms as a way to criticize the rulers and church at home.
Burned by the hangman
In 1734 a Paris court ordered the French edition torn up and burned in public as dangerous to religion.
Born from a stay abroad
Voltaire wrote it after about two years in England, where he went after a short stay in prison.
English came first
It appeared in English in London a year before the French version, which was printed without official permission.
Author forced to hide
A warrant went out for Voltaire's arrest, so he fled Paris, and his French printer was jailed.
Translated from French