The connection with the Thousand and one nights can be found [1] in the structure of interrupted stories within the letters; [2] the inserted tales; and [3] in the plot evolving around the relationship between Usbek and his main wife Roxanne and the latter’s refusal to accept her husband’s despotic authority. A second major work is De l’esprit des lois, an extensive study of the government of several countries, in which Montesquieu unfolds his ideas on statecraft and society. He was called back to Bordeaux by the death of his father in 1713. Alain Cambier, Montesquieu et la liberté, Éditions Hermann, Paris 2010. The novel shows the influence of the epistolary work Lettres d’un espion turc by Giovanni Paolo Marana (1642-1693), which was first published in Italian in 1684 (in French 1686), and which contains a series of fictional reports about French society, presumably written by a Turkish ‘spy’ observing European societies. Educated first at home and then in the village, he was sent away to school in 1700. Save 50% off a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Julia V. Douthwaite, Exotic women; literary heroines and cultural strategies in ancient regime France, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 1992. His father, Jacques de Secondat, belonged to an old military family of modest wealth that had been ennobled in the 16th century for services to the crown, while his mother, Marie-Françoise de Pesnel, was a pious lady of partial English extraction. Montesquieu’s full name is baron de la Brede et de Montesquieu—popularly known as Montesquieu. . Courtesy of the. He attended parliamentary debates and read the political journals of the day. From Italy he moved through Germany to Holland and thence (at the end of October 1729), in the company of the statesman and wit Lord Chesterfield, to England, where he remained until the spring of 1731. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). In 1721 he surprised all but a few close friends by publishing his Lettres persanes (Persian Letters, 1722), in which he gave a brilliant satirical portrait of French and particularly Parisian civilization, supposedly seen through the eyes of two Persian travellers. He loved to read and write and, like the utilitarian thinker he spent his life in reading and writing. The work’s anonymity was soon penetrated, and Montesquieu became famous. 7-11,127-125, 275-276. http://montesquieu.ens-lyon.fr/spip.php?article902, http://montesquieu.ens-lyon.fr/spip.php?rubrique153. Premium Membership is now 50% off! It sparked off a true genre of epistolary literature of various kinds, which greatly contributed to all kinds of literary experimentation during the 18th century, throughout Europe. His position was one of some dignity. Going to Paris in 1722, he was assisted in entering court circles by the duke of Berwick, the exiled Stuart prince whom he had known when Berwick was military governor at Bordeaux. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède and de Montesquieu (often known as Montesquieu) was born during the Age of Enlightenment. The novel is not just a ‘mirror’ for European societies, but also shows how a system of Oriental despotism disintegrates due to the absence of the ‘ruler’ and its incompatibility with the feminine ‘temperament’. He became a close friend of the dukes of Richmond and Montagu. Montesquieu was born on La Brède near Bordeaux, studied law in Bordeaux where he inhereted the Barony of Montesquieu and became a member of parliament. It was during this period that he made the acquaintance of the English politician Viscount Bolingbroke, whose political views were later to be reflected in Montesquieu’s analysis of the English constitution. with a long noble ancestry, and his mother, Marie Françoise de Pesnel, who died when Charles Louis was seven, was an heiress (a woman with a large monetary inheritance) who … French political philosopher Montesquieu was best known for The Spirit of Laws (1748), one of the great works in the history of political theory and of jurisprudence. He left Juilly in 1705, continued his studies at the faculty of law at the University of Bordeaux, graduated, and became an advocate in 1708. The work—infused throughout with a new spirit of vigorous, disrespectful, and iconoclastic criticism—made Montesquieu famous. Library of Congress. Montesquieu, in full Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu, (born January 18, 1689, Château La Brède, near Bordeaux, France—died February 10, 1755, Paris), French political philosopher whose principal work, The Spirit of Laws, was a major contribution to political theory. Montesquieu, Baron de la Brede et de Montesquieu, Charles Louis de Secondat (noun) French political philosopher who advocated the separation of executive and legislative and judicial powers (1689-1755) He was presented at court, and he was received by the prince of Wales, at whose request he later made an anthology of French songs. Louis Desgraves, Montesquieu, Fayard, Paris 1998. http://montesquieu.ens-lyon.fr/ (Société Montesquieu), http://montesquieu.ens-lyon.fr/spip.php?article902 (Collected works), http://montesquieu.ens-lyon.fr/spip.php?rubrique153 (Critical essays), Encounters with the Orient - University of Kent. He bought extensively for his library. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Montesquieu, The Catholic Encyclopedia - Biography of Charles-Louis de Secondat Montesquieu, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Biography of Baron de Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat, Alpha History - Biography of Baron de Montesquieu, Montesquieu - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up), “Reflections on the Causes of the Grandeur and Decline of the Romans”. Charles-Louis admired and exploited his wife’s business skill and readily left her in charge of the property on his visits to Paris. Baron de Montesquieu was one of the great political philosophers of the Enlightenment period, and brought forward many great ideas and thoughts Pierre Martino, L’Orient dans la littérature Francaise au XVIIe au XVIIIe siècle, Paris: Librairie Hachette, 1906. Updates? In 1721 he published his highly influential novel in letters Lettres persanes, which contains a sharp critique of French society presented through the fictional letters of a Persian notable. The school was the Collège de Juilly, close to Paris and in the diocese of Meaux. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. In Rome he heard the French minister Cardinal Polignac and read his unpublished Latin poem Anti-Lucretius. While Usbek and Rica report about their explorations of Europe and comment on the manners and customs they encounter, and the forms of government, the situation in the palace at home deteriorates because of a rebellion of the harem ladies. But he does not appear to have been either faithful or greatly devoted to her. This exceedingly successful work mocks the reign of Louis XIV, which had only recently ended; pokes fun at all social classes; discusses, in its allegorical story of the Troglodytes, the theories of Thomas Hobbes relating to the state of nature. Marie-Louise Dufrenoy, L’Orient romanesque en France (1704-1789), 3 vols., Montreal: Beauchemin (vols. Lettres persanes. His father, Jacques de Secondat, was a soldier.

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