Persian Letters Charles-Louis de Secondat Montesquieu

Though the manuscripts from which were set editions A and B have not survived, there are notebooks of corrections and addenda ("Cahiers de corrections") at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (n. a. fr. 14365): see Edgar Mass, "Les éditions des Lettres persanes," Revue française d’histoire du livre nos. 102–103 (1999), pp. 19–56.

The most important modern French editions:

• Antoine Adam, Genève: Droz, 1954.
• Jean Starobinski, Paris: Gallimard "Folio," 1973, reprinted in 2003.
• Paul Vernière, Paris: Classiques Garnier, 1960, reprinted in 1965, 1975, 1992; revised edition by Catherine Volpilhac-Auger, Livre de Poche classique, 2001.
• Cecil Courtney, Philip Stewart, Catherine Volpilhac-Auger, Pauline Kra, Edgar Mass, Didier Masseau, Œuvres complètes, Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, vol. I, 2004. Critical edition based on the original 1721 edition.
• Philip Stewart, Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2013. Text of the original 1721 edition.

There have been numerous English translations, usually under the title (The) Persian Letters, and based on the posthumous text of 1757:

• John Ozell, London, 1722.
• [Thomas] Flloyd, London, 4th edition 1762. Available in Eighteenth Century Collections Online to libraries which subscribe to that series.
• J. Robert Loy, New York: Meridian Books, 1961.
• George R Healy, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1964.
• C. J. Betts, Harmondsworth and New York: Penguin, 1973.
• Margaret Mauldon, Oxford University Press, 2008, based on the 1721 edition.
• Raymond N. MacKenzie, Indianapolis: Hackett, 2014.
• Stuart D. Warner and Stéphane Douard, South Bend: St. Augustine's Press, 2017.
• Philip Stewart, Société Montesquieu, 2020, based on the 1721 edition; open access on line [1].

Critical studies:

• Robert Shackleton, "The Moslem chronology of the Lettres persanes", French Studies 8 (1954), pp. 17–27.
• Roger Laufer, "La réussite romanesque et la signification des Lettres persanes," Revue d’Histoire Littéraire de la France 61 (1961), pp. 188–203; reprinted in Style rococo, style des Lumières, Paris: Seuil, 1963.
• Jean Rousset, "Une forme littéraire: le roman par lettres," in Forme et signification, Paris: José Corti, 1962, pp. 65–103.
• Roger Mercier, "Le roman dans les Lettres persanes: structure et signification," Revue des Sciences Humaines 107 (1962), pp. 345–56.
• Patrick Brady, "The Lettres persanes: rococo or neo-classical? », Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 53 (1967), pp. 47–77.
• Aram Vartanian, "Eroticism and politics in the Lettres persanes," Romanic Review 60 (1969), pp. 23–33.
• Georges Benrekassa, "Montesquieu et le roman comme genre littéraire", Roman et Lumières au XVIIIe siècle, Paris: Éditions Sociales, 19770, pp. 27–37.
• Jean Ehrard, "La signification politique des Lettres persanes", Archives des Lettres Modernes 116 (1970), pp. 33–50; reprinted in L’Invention littéraire au siècle des Lumières: fictions, idées, société, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1997, pp. 17–32.
• Pauline Kra, Religion in Montesquieu's "Lettres persanes", Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 72 (1970).
• Jean Starobinski, preface to Folio edition of Lettres persanes, 1973.
• Jean Marie Goulemot, "Questions sur la signification politique des Lettres Persanes," Approches des Lumières, Paris: Klincksieck, 1974, pp. 213–225.
• Michel Delon, "Un monde d'eunuques", Europe, February 1977.
• Alain Grosrichard, Structure du sérail: la fiction du despotisme asiatique dans l’Occident classique, Paris: Seuil, 1979.
• Laurent Versini, Le Roman épistolaire, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1979, pp. 40–46.
• Alan Singerman, "Réflexions sur une métaphore: le sérail dans les Lettres persanes," Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 185 (1980), pp. 181–198.
• Josué Harari, "The Eunuch’s Tale: Montesquieu’s imaginary of despotism," in Scenarios of the Imaginary, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987, pp. 67–101.
• Jean Marie Goulemot, "Vision du devenir historique et formes de la révolution dans les Lettres persanes," Dix-Huitième Siècle 21 (1989), pp. 13–22.
• Sylvie Romanowski, "La quête du savoir dans les Lettres persanes," Eighteenth-Century Fiction 3 (1991), pp. 93–111.
• Diana J. Schaub, Erotic Liberalism: women and revolution in Montesquieu's "Persian Letters". Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1995.
• Céline Spector, Montesquieu, "Lettres persanes", de l’anthropologie à la politique, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1997.
• Louis Desgraves, Chronologie critique de la vie et des œuvres de Montesquieu, Paris: Champion, 1998, pp. 36–94.
• Philip Stewart, "Toujours Usbek," Eighteenth-Century Fiction 11 (1999), pp. 141–150.
• Jean Pierre Schneider, "Les jeux du sens dans les Lettres persanes: temps du roman et temps de l’histoire," Revue Montesquieu 4 (2000), pp. 127–159: (https://montesquieu.ens-lyon.fr/IMG/pdf/RM04_Schneider_127-159.pdf)
• Mary McAlpin, "Between Men for All Eternity: feminocentrism in Montesquieu’s Lettres persanes," Eighteenth-Century Life 24 (2000), pp. 45–61.
• Lucas A. Swaine, "The Secret Chain: Justice and Self-Interest in Montesquieu's Persian Letters," History of Political Thought 22 (2001), pp. 84–105.
• Jean Goldzink, Montesquieu et les passions, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2001.
• Christophe Martin (dir.), Les "Lettres persanes" de Montesquieu, Paris: Presses de l'Université Paris-Sorbonne, 2013.
• Philip Stewart (dir.), Les "Lettres persanes" en leur temps, Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2013.