Voltaire’s “philosophic tale” is a clever satire of France in the mid-18th century. He makes fun of religious intolerance, the destructiveness of war, and the foibles of mankind. He concludes with a plea that we should all “cultivate…
The great Italian poet turns his hand to political thought and defends the reign of a single monarch ruling over a universal empire. He believed that peace was only achievable when a single monarch replaced divisive and squabbling…
Dante’s masterwork is a 3 volume work written in Italian rather than Latin. Vol. 1 (Inferno (Hell) describes what happens to the souls of the wicked who are condemned to suffer the torments of Hell. Vol. 2 Purgatorio (Purgatory)…
Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (author)
My Thoughts provides a unique window into the mind of the author of The Spirit of the Laws. From the publication of his first masterpiece, Persian Letters, in 1721, until his death in 1755, Montesquieu maintained notebooks in which…
A late 19th century colletcion of Boetie’s Works with a long introductory essay. It contains Boétie’s best known work, the “Discourse of Voluntary Servitude” where he explores why the majority too often willingly capitulates to the…
A 21 volume collected works of the writings of Voltaire with a biographical volume by the English Liberal MP John Morley and notes by the 18th century Scottish novelist Tobias Smollett.