Lettres persanes ‒ Oriental observations, satire, popularization of enlightened intercultural knowledge

Abstract

Montesquieu’s epistolary novel Lettres persanes, published in 1721, distinguishes itself as a central work of European Enlightenment literature that, through its aesthetic configuration, elaborates a reflection on essential aspects of the idearium of this epoch of world culture. By the fiction of two Persian travelers who describe European, and especially Parisian culture, customs, and lifestyle in the form of epistolary reports to their correspondents, the novel creates, mainly through satire, a value and biting image of French society at the time. This article proposes that the Lettres persanes use satire on the national from an Oriental vision, not only for the construction of a critical reflection on their own country, but also ‒ and above all ‒ to popularize Enlightenment knowledge, specifically intercultural, among their contemporary readership.