MONTESQUIEU (Charles de). Lettres persanes. ÀCologne, chez P - Lot 56

MONTESQUIEU (Charles de). Lettres persanes. ÀCologne, chez Pierre Marteau [i.e. Amsterdam, Susanne deCaux], 1721. 2tomes in one volume in-12, (2dont la seconde blanche)-311-(uneblanche)-(2dont la seconde blanche)-347-(une blanche)pp., brown basane, spine ribbed, cloisonné and fleuronné; very worn binding with renewed title-piece, several leaves detached, some wetness; volume placed in wooden case covered on the outside with imitation velvet (period binding). First edition. "This] account of the discovery of the West by two Easterners, with their surprises and astonishments gradually fading away to make way for a less systematic criticism of political and religious mores and institutions, written in the form of letters, while continuing a novel sprinkled with allusions to the author's own life, has above all a political aspect, the "liberalism" of which stems from the condemnation of LouisXIV's "despotism"; if absolutism constitutes a threat to the social status of the aristocracy, the Lettres persanes also reveal the new forms of economic power and the dream of a compromise solution leading to a desired accord between land and money, blood and merit" (Louis Desgraves, in En Français dans le texte, n°138). Provenance: old manuscript bookplate on the title of the first volume.