Montesquieu’s The Persian Letters: Culture.
“I saw an insatiable lust for money suddenly springing up in every heart. I saw the instantaneous development of a hateful conspiracy to get rich, not by honourable work and unstinting behaviour, but by ruining the king, the state and other citizens.”
― Montesquieu, The Persian Letters (Letter 147) The Persian Letters is an epistolary novel about two men, Usbek and his friend Rica, traveling over the course of fourteen months from Isfahan (modern day Iran) to France. They spend ten years in Europe from 1711-1720 observing the cultural differences between Isfahan and France. While in Europe, King Louis XIV is ruling over France, leaving Usbek and Rica to experience the unfairness in governmental handlings and the vast …show more content…
They often poke fun at the French for their fashion and tendencies to change often for no reason. He found their practice of their religion and how they only follow what is told for them to follow ridiculous. Usbek mocked the people of France and how gullible they are to Louis XIV’s way of governing. He couldn’t believe that the citizens of France payed the overpriced tax’s Louis imposed in order to build his luxurious palaces and live his luxurious life. “Those who gather the taxes swim in wealth; and there are few Tantaluses among them. It is the extremity of misery, however, that drives them into this employment. They are despised like dirt while they are poor; when they become rich, they are sufficiently respected, as they neglect nothing to acquire esteem.” (Montesquieu, The Persian Letters. Letter 99.) He often ridiculed the French society for how blind the people were to the things happening around them, but at the same time he praised Louis for his way of manipulating people and getting them to follow him through any ridiculous laws that he imposed onto his
“I saw an insatiable lust for money suddenly springing up in every heart. I saw the instantaneous development of a hateful conspiracy to get rich, not by honourable work and unstinting behaviour, but by ruining the king, the state and other citizens.”
― Montesquieu, The Persian Letters (Letter 147) The Persian Letters is an epistolary novel about two men, Usbek and his friend Rica, traveling over the course of fourteen months from Isfahan (modern day Iran) to France. They spend ten years in Europe from 1711-1720 observing the cultural differences between Isfahan and France. While in Europe, King Louis XIV is ruling over France, leaving Usbek and Rica to experience the unfairness in governmental handlings and the vast …show more content…
They often poke fun at the French for their fashion and tendencies to change often for no reason. He found their practice of their religion and how they only follow what is told for them to follow ridiculous. Usbek mocked the people of France and how gullible they are to Louis XIV’s way of governing. He couldn’t believe that the citizens of France payed the overpriced tax’s Louis imposed in order to build his luxurious palaces and live his luxurious life. “Those who gather the taxes swim in wealth; and there are few Tantaluses among them. It is the extremity of misery, however, that drives them into this employment. They are despised like dirt while they are poor; when they become rich, they are sufficiently respected, as they neglect nothing to acquire esteem.” (Montesquieu, The Persian Letters. Letter 99.) He often ridiculed the French society for how blind the people were to the things happening around them, but at the same time he praised Louis for his way of manipulating people and getting them to follow him through any ridiculous laws that he imposed onto his