Letters Concerning The English Nation. Voltaire.

First edition of Voltaire's celebration of England and the English, the first edition in any language of the work, with the French edition, printed in Amsterdam, appearing the subsequent year. Voltaire's great admiration for the English people and their system of government was developed during his exile in the country in the 1720s. He was deeply impressed by the respect given to Newton at his state funeral, to the toleration given to the Quakers, and to the British mixed system of government, and wrote the book with the strong implication that England provided a model for French reform. The Letters are one of the key productions of the Enlightenment and remain one of Voltaire's most famous and widely read works. Voltaire's enthusiastic writings on Bacon, Locke, and Newton aided in bringing these individuals, with their empirical methods, into the French public eye, where they were a major influence on the Enlightenment's moderate, non-Rousseauian wing. ESTC T137614; Bengesco 1558; Sabin 100751. Octavo (199 x 123 mm). Contemporary panelled calf, neatly rebacked and recornered. Bookplate of John Somers (1788-1852), then Baron, later Earl Somers, and Member of Parliament for Reigate and Hereford. Slight abrasion to calf, minor repairs at head of rear free endpapers, contents clean and fresh. A very good copy.