His family
He was born in the southwest of France in
1698. His father, was a soldier with a long noble ancestry. His mother, who died when he was
seven, was a female inheritor of a large amount of money, which brought the title of barony to this family. After having studied at the Catholic College
Although the Enlightenment was a movement that gained momentum in the second half of the 18th century, its intellectual origin could be traced back to the previous century. The most important
His works
1. Persian Letters《 波斯人信札》 (1721). he achieved literary success with the publication of it.
2. Considerations on the Causes of the Grandeur and Decadence of the Romans (1734). 《罗马盛衰原因论》
Persian Letters
It is an
epistolary novel
Plot Summary
In 1711 Usbek leaves his home to undertake the long journey to France, accompanied by his young friend Rica. He leaves behind five wives in the care of a number of black eunuchs, one of whom is the head or first eunuch. During the trip and their long stay in Paris, they comment, in letters exchanged with friends and mullahs, on numerous aspects of Western. Over time, various disorders surface back in the seraglio, and, beginning in 1717 ,the situation there rapidly unravels. Usbek orders his head eunuch to crack down, but his message does not arrive in time, and a revolt brings about the death of his wives,.
of Juilly, he married. His wife was a protestant,
who brought him a substantial dowery when he was 26. The next year, he inherited a fortuneell as the title Baron de
French Philosophy and literature in Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment
The enlightenment was an intellectual movement originating in France, which widespread support among the ruling and intellectual classes of Europe and North America in the second half of the 18th century. It characterizes the effort by certain European writers to use critical reason to free minds from prejudice, unexamined authority and oppression by Church or State. Therefore the enlightenment is sometimes called the Age of Reason.
3. The spirit of laws 《论发的精神》 (1748). It quickly rose to a position of enormous influence.
In France, it met with an unfriendly reception from both supporters and opponents of the regime. But it received the highest praise from the rest of Europe, especially Britain.
forerunners of the Enlightenment were two 17th Englishmen John Lock and Newton.
Montesquieu
He is a jurist, satirist, and political and social philosopher. He is also the great French men of letters associated with tne Enlightenment.
Montesquieu. But in 1726, he sold this title and got much money to settle in Paris.
His death
During his life, Montesquieu traveled for a number of years through Europe including Austria and Hungray, spending a year in Italy and 18 months in England before resettling in France. He was troubled by poor eyesight, and was completely blind by the time he died from a high fever in 1755. He was buried in the Paris.