Voltaire’s essential *Letters on England* brought the Enlightenment to France

This series letters written while in exile — on the sometimes-shocking English way of doing religion, politics, science, morals, and philosophy — were hugely influential upon a French audience still in the grip of l’ancien regime. Related: The full Philosophers, Explained series, including classics from Kant, Nietzsche, Rand, Camus, Aristotle, Plato, and other important thinkers.