L2L Letters Concerning the English Nation

Letters Concerning the English Nation

Voltaire

The 32-year-old Voltaire had a dispute with a nobleman and challenged him to a duel. In response, the nobleman had him beaten and thrown into the Bastille. This would be Voltaire’s second time in the Bastille-slammer (and he likely wasn’t culpable for either). Voltaire asked to be exiled to England instead, and that was granted. For the next two and a half years, he lived in England and wrote about what he found. This is Voltaire as a travel writer: Like Paul Theroux, he examines curiosities and personalities of a foreign land. Leigh and P. T. travel with him and see how his perspectives hold up after three centuries.