Letters on England

After three years in exile, Voltaire returned to France with something dangerous: respect for another nation's freedoms. These letters are his attempt to explain England to his compatriots, and the result is a work of extraordinary wit and pointed admiration. He writes about Quakers and Parliament, Newton and Locke, with an outsider's keen eye that never stops being amused. The Quakers especially delight him - their plain dress and plain speaking become a lens through which Voltaire critiques French absurdity. But this is no simple paean. Voltaire admires English religious tolerance and parliamentary government while quietly asking: why must France remain so backward? The satire is gentle, the irony ever-present, but the message is clear. Banned in France upon publication, Letters on England became the book that taught a nation to look enviously across the Channel and question its own institutions.