Montesquieu

Catherine Volpilhac-Auger is professor emerita at École Normale Supérieure de Lyon (Lyon) and is the president of the Montesquieu Society. “Volpilhac-Auger serves up a veritable feast for afficionados and connoisseurs of the great Frenchman. She debunks longstanding myths, presents new facts and discoveries unavailable to Robert Shackleton when he published his noteworthy biography in 1961, and prioritizes Montesquieu’s lesser-known writings that hold the key to understanding the origins of his various intellectual journeys. We can say of her work what she herself remarks of Montesquieu’s Persian Letters: ‘a sense of delight permeates the whole book.’ An added plus is the skillful translation by Philip Stewart.” DAVID W. CARRITHERS, Adolph Ochs Professor of Government Emeritus, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

C M Y K 9781009249096. Volpilhac-Auger. Jacket.

“This is an engaging and erudite account of the life and work of Montesquieu. Catherine Volpilhac-Auger has worked many years in the editing of Montesquieu’s writings and letters and she brings her valuable expertise to correct many previous myths and ill-formed judgements in previous scholarship. This book is a must for anyone seeking further insight into and understanding of Montesquieu’s life and intellectual development.” REBECCA KINGSTON, Professor of Political Science, University of Toronto “Catherine Volpihac-Auger’s new biography of Montesquieu – ably translated by Philip Stewart – is the perfect foil to Robert Shackleton’s Montesquieu, the English language standard for more than half a century. Among the virtues of her writing, she urges the reader to consider the silences in Montesquieu’s own rendering of his past. She shows us how we should be surprised at the choices he made. At the same time, she dispels the old legends uncritically repeated from one generation to the next. It is all done in a delightful style, which combines opposites in contrapuntal Montesquieurhythm. She has the staccato wit of the salon, supported by an ostinato bass of informed skepticism that establishes distance and aids in readers coming to their own conclusions about the plausibilities of narrative.” MICHAEL MOSHER, University of TulsaLet There Be Enlightenment

Catherine Volpilhac-Auger, translated by Philip Stewart

Volpilhac-Auger

Montesquieu Montesquieu

Let There Be Enlightenment

Catherine Volpilhac-Auger

Translated by Philip Stewart

Cover image: Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (18 January 1689–10 February 1755) Nastasic / Getty Images Since the last biography of Montesquieu in English (Shackleton, Oxford, 1961) Designed by EMC Design LtdPRINTED IN THE UNITED KINGDOM Montesquieu scholarship has been entirely renewed, culminating in a critical edition of his complete works in twenty-two volumes that is nearing completion. Since 1998, this new edition of the complete works has considerably modified what was known about Montesquieu and his procedures, eliciting new translations and further studies. Additionally, several thousand manuscript pages were made public in 1994 and continue to generate further scholarly inquiry. The author of this compact biography, originally published by Gallimard 2017, is the director of the critical edition of the works and the most qualified scholar of Montesquieu. At once an introduction to Montesquieu’s thought and a synthesis of current knowledge about his life and work, this book is full of insights and revised judgements about Montesquieu and how his political philosophy helped thrust Enlightenment onto the European agenda.

Catherine Volpilhac-Auger is professor emerita at École Normale Supérieure de Lyon (Lyon) and is the president of the Montesquieu Society.

Philip Stewart, Duke University UK publication February 2023 US publication February 2023

262 pages 9781009249096 Hardback

£29.99 | $39.99 USD | $45.95 CAD

At a glance

• Contextualizes a body of work that is foundational for modern political thought • Addresses and dismisses an accretion of false information that has constantly been repeated • Guides through the opening processes, ideas and phases of what was later styled Enlightenment