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Audiobook edition · 4 h 14 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a visit to another country could expose the habits your own country never questions?
In Letters on England, Voltaire looks across the Channel and holds up a mirror to France. He visits Quakers, studies Parliament and watches merchants at the Royal Exchange. Written as if to a friend at home, these short essays ask what the English do better—and why their choices matter.
His curiosity reaches from religious practice to the limits of royal power, from trade to science and literature. Francis Bacon, John Locke and Isaac Newton become guides to thinking through evidence rather than grand systems. Voltaire writes with wit and purpose: he selects his examples to make a point, not to offer a balanced portrait of England.
What you’ll discover
- Faith without pomp Meet a Quaker merchant whose plain clothes and simple speech surprise his French visitor.
- Room for different beliefs Explore Voltaire’s argument that a variety of religions can help keep the peace.
- Power with limits See how king, Lords and Commons share a constitution that limits royal power.
- Commerce as a force Follow the claim that merchants strengthen liberty, while liberty gives trade room to grow.
- Evidence, wit and writers Discover a case for experiment, alongside admiration and honest criticism of English literary life.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like witty travel writing, Enlightenment ideas, the roots of religious tolerance, the lives of Newton and Locke, or sharp comparisons between nations.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Strange customs open a larger question
- Persecuted faith can build tolerance
- Many faiths leave room for peace
- Balanced power makes liberty more secure
- Useful ideas deserve a fair test
- Sound thinking admits what remains unknown
- Measurement gives discovery its strength
- Public honor helps the arts flourish
- Freedom links belief with discovery
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Letters on England in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Letters on England
by Voltaire · 1733
A Quaker greets a French visitor without a bow, and a whole island of odd liberties opens up.
Challenging2–5 hours to read2 languages
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In short
What would a Frenchman make of a host who keeps his hat on, calls him thee, and thinks baptism is an old Jewish custom? He walks into a quiet Quaker house near London and sees that the English live by rules he has never met.
Letters on England at a glance
- Reading time
- About 2 h 20 min1 h 50 min fast, 2 h 45 min slow
- Length
- 32,900 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1733by Voltaire
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Quakers show faith can do without ritual
Voltaire begins with a visit to a retired Quaker merchant. The man lives in a small, neat house, wears a plain coat, keeps his hat on, and says thee to a stranger. Voltaire bows in the French way and feels clumsy beside such calm courtesy.
The Quaker explains his beliefs one by one. He was never baptized, because he thinks washing with water belongs to the old Jewish law, and he says Christ asked for a baptism of the spirit. He keeps no paid priests, since he believes a faith that is sold turns a gathering into a shop.
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1733
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 2 h 45 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Voltaire. Letters on England. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/letters-on-england.
Voltaire. (2026). Letters on England. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/letters-on-england (Original work published 1733)
Voltaire. Letters on England. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/letters-on-england.
@book{voltaire2026letters,
author = {Voltaire},
title = {Letters on England},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/letters-on-england},
note = {First published 1733}
}
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What is Letters on England about?
It is a set of twenty-four letters in which Voltaire describes English life to a friend in France. He covers Quakers, the Church, Parliament, trade, inoculation, Locke, Newton, poets, playwrights and the honors given to writers.
Why did Voltaire write about the Quakers first?
Voltaire was curious about a people who refuse oaths, war and paid priests. Four letters on them show a plain, sincere faith, and set the book's theme that tolerance lets odd groups live in peace.
What does Voltaire say about Newton and Descartes?
He sets them side by side, praising Descartes as the man who opened the path and Newton as the one who walked it. Newton's gravity, light and calculus are treated in four letters.
The author
Voltaire
1694–1778 · French Enlightenment writer and philosopher
Voltaire was a French Enlightenment writer and philosopher, famous across Europe in his own lifetime for his wit and his campaigns against intolerance. Candide, his satirical tale of a naive optimist battered by the world, remains his most widely read work.
More by Voltaire
See all their booksMore like this
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