[Rarebooks] fa: VOLTAIRE - LETTRES ECRITES DE LONDRES SUR LES ANGLOIS (Lettres Philosophiques) 1734

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending MONDAY, March 20. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/jsorvzs

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


Francois-Marie Arouet de Voltaire: Lettres Ecrites de Londres sur les Anglois et Autres Sujets. Par M. D. V***. Basle [i.e. London]: [printed by William Bowyer], 1734. First edition in French. Small 8vo (17.25 cm) in later calf-backed marbled boards, spine titled in gilt; [8], 228, 19, [1] pp.; woodcut tail-pieces and title-page vignette.

The first edition of Voltaire's original text, preceded only by an English translation published the year before. First and last leaf with soiling, toning and an early owner's signatures and notations; 3-4 leaves with damp-stain to the bottom fore-corners, occasional modest soiling and light (erasable) pencil marks in the margins, else quite clean, bright and fresh, firmly bound.

"Voltaire’s masterpiece, Lettres sur les Anglais, otherwise known as Lettres philosophiques, is one of the greatest and most influential works of the eighteenth century and beyond. In twenty-four short chapters, the work covers a wide range of themes, from religion and politics to literature, philosophy and science, all made easily and humorously accessible with Voltaire’s trademark irony. The author uses the example of England to show the interconnection of religious tolerance, political freedom and international trade: in effect, Voltaire wrote a manifesto of modern economic and political liberalism, the kind that remains at the very heart of our modern European liberal democracies to this day..." (Voltaire Foundation, Oxford University). With letters on such diverse subjects as: Quakers, Presbyterians, Locke, Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, Alexander Pope, government, literature, tragedy and comedy, etc., etc.