Letters on England (Penguin Classics)

Letters on the English is a series of essays written by Voltaire based on his experiences living in Great Britain between 1726 and 1729. It was seen as an attack on the French system of government and was rapidly suppressed. (Wikipedia)

Voltaire’s Letters on England are written with his customary wit, wisdom and erudition. They consist of his observations on the English people and on how French society would do well to emulate them. Most editors describe the last chapters on Pascal’s Pensees as an add-on to the more important parts; something to make the book the right length.I would argue instead that they’re a pivotal part of the book. Voltaire, of course, was one of the mouthpieces of the Enlightenment. He wanted to apply reason to all things: religion, society, government. Admittedly, it was sometimes a simplistic reasoning that had to be overturned by deeper thinking. However, one can say that Voltaire’s project has been largely accepted by the modern world.Why append reflections on the Pensees to such an optimistic, forward-looking work? Precisely because Pascal was the embodiment of a different account of reason. Pascal also aimed to persuade that reason is the most exalted part of man, but one that ultimately recognizes its limits to judge in matters of faith. He would argue that faithlessness was unreasonable: that the Bible, a rightly understood world and reflections on our inmost selves should lead us to bow down our reason before the Christian God and accept him in faith. That, in matters of the divine, the heart must guide reason to an acceptance of a higher order.Two great philosophers, two great champions of reason. One would help give birth to the Enlightenment, one would forever change Christian apologetics. I am not here to say which was greater, just to point out that Voltaire knew what he was doing in criticizing Pascal. He was trying to exclude from the Pantheon someone who refused to grant human reason sovereignty in all matters.To be honest, the same battle over the domains of faith and reason continues to this day. A highly recommended source for all who want to better understand the foundations of the Enlightenment.

Voltaire’s Letters on England is hardly as exhaustive as Alexis de Tocqueville or as ordinary as Montaigne. In fact not, and thankfully not as exhausting to read. Voltaire has written a few letters to France, if for no other reason to remind them that he is a free man in England and might not be one in France. I am speaking to the free Kindle edition which seems to have copied over with no obvious mistakes in the transfer process. The quality of the translation if for another to judge, that this was easy to read is the limits of my expertise.The Letters range from matters of religion as Voltaire records England as a land of many religious sects. His conclusions is that the presence of so many promotes religious tolerance while too few encourages strife as they struggle for ascendancy and one results in the total loss of freedom. Not a bad case for the separation of church and state.She spends a fair amount of time extoling Sir Isaac Newton almost all too highly complementary but with a little left over to admit the man was less than perfect even in things scientific. In the same way it was fun to read him disparage Shakespeare. I am a fan of the Bard, but Voltaire’s comment:“Shakespeare boasted a strong fruitful genius. He was natural and sublime, but had not so much as a single spark of good taste, or knew one rule of the drama.” Was so unexpected as to cause me to laugh and read it to my wife. Voltaire would have a complex relationship with the plays of the man from Stratford, but that goes beyond this text.Mostly Voltaire list those he respects, Sir Francis Bacon, Sir Edward Halley and so forth but it is description of the plays by Molière, and the infinitely lessor known English playwrights: Mr. Wycherley and Mr. Congreve, that have me thinking it is time to read more and earlier plays.Overall Voltaire tone is factual if opinion driven. There are flashes of wit, but these tend to be quiet and lurk like (remember I am writing on the Saturday before) Easter Eggs.

Voltaire spent the years from 1726 to 1729 in exile in England. His striking observations about that country were published a few years later, but were banned in his home country of France. In these twenty-five letters, he holds up a mirror to France by praising English liberty, democracy, and tolerance.Voltaire was an eighteenth-century deist but was enamored of England's religious tolerance vis-à-vis France, and discusses the Quakers, Anglicans, Presbyterians, and describes how religious freedom worked. He examines Blaise Pascal's Pensées, noting his areas of disagreement in many areas, including that of the nature of man.Many of Voltaire's views are what we would describe today as libertarian, and he was a great admirer of English trade, commerce, and businessmen. The author also comments on John Locke, Isaac Newton, and figures from English literature and their styles. He even devotes a letter to smallpox inoculation."Letters on England" is a fascinating look at key aspects of English culture and life, and American readers will recognize some of the characteristics of England that later found even greater expression in this country. As it is true that in the area of liberty England is an outlier compared with the rest of Europe, America is an outlier compared to England (and Texas is an outlier compared to America).

We are in the middle of the 18th century. Voltaire endeavours comparing English against French on morals and customs. Interesting. Things get even better when he starts to talk about thinkers like Bacon, Locke and Newton. The highest point is a comparison between Descartes and Newton lifestyles. Voltaire was “unfair” in such comparison, but he also highlights that in philosophy you need to doubt everything especially things you think you know. Methinks this is a very good book! (Without much Shakespeare).

One of Voltaire's most enjoyable works, Letters on England (also known as Philosophical Letters) is actually at heart a critique of political, intellectual and social conditions in the author's native France. His wit is sly, his insight impressive and his style exquisite.

I am not an academic nor am I a scholar. I challenged myself to read this, to stretch myself. I actually enjoyed some parts and even understood a couple of things said. Learning about Sir Isaac Newton was very interesting, he discovered so much more than just gravity. What struck me is that the names he mentioned in this book, to us seem in the dim and distant but to him they were real characters fresh in the mind.

This was the first book by Voltaire that I've had a chance to read and wow what a treat! The man really could write, and the subject matter is fascinating in light of the intellectual history of liberalism. Even as a subtle propagandist Voltaire is very fun- as laid out in the introduction, he is oh-so-clever in crafting his contrast between enlightened, freethinking England, and absolutist, close-minded France.I'd been reading Locke right before starting and the difference in prose style is night and day- Locke is turgid and plodding, Voltaire lucid and witty. It's a wonder that a span of little over a generation separates the two!

These are quite varied rhetorical travel reports from a dim and distant London of the seventeenth century. Voltaire is witty urbane and incisively critical in his response to English thought and practice - you can sense both admiration and horror as he discusses the radical thoughts,tastes and freedoms of France's traditional enemy.. The latter letters are harder going, but the first two on his thee-thouing quaker are the real highlight. If only we had such radically innovative freethinking to be proud of today...

In his brilliant biography (Voltaire A life: Profile Books), Ian Davidson records that in 1735 the French authorities were so disturbed by Voltaire's book 'Letters on England' (Lettres philosophiques) that they would permit him to return to Paris only on condition that "he made a public recantation disowning the [book] and promised to behave better in future".The book is a delight. Voltaire's pen pictures, from the quaintness of the Quakers to his undisguised admiration and wonder at Newton's discovery of gravity, are wittily and carefully observed. For me there were one or two surprises; not the least being the detailed description, fifteen and more years before Edward Jenner was born, of the practice of inoculating infants with a mild form of small pox to save them from the ravages of the often fatal form of that terrible and disfiguring disease.The idea that his highly controversial book would in the future be made not only freely available but that people could have it delivered to their homes in an instant at the touch of a button would, I am sure, have intrigued the great man - although the natural accountant in him might have been a little concerned at the `free' bit.Despite its antiquity (1894) this translation is very well worth a read. My thanks to Amazon for making such a famous book available to us at no cost.