Polish translations of Montesquieu’s Persian Letters

The purpose of the present article is to show the history of Polish translations of a famous epistolary novel Persian Letters written in 1721 by Montesquieu. In his work, the author neither introduces linguistic matters of the translations, nor he analyses their correctness; however, he presents strictly historical and cultural aspects of the process of translation. What is more, the article aims at presenting the intentions of Polish translators, the historical context of their work and its importance for a Polish reader. Regardless of the era when they produced their translations, starting as early as the eighteenth century, Polish translators always saw in Montesquieu’s Persian Letters something more than a simple and light epistolary novel of the Regency era.

The purpose of the present article is to show the history of Polish translations of a famous epistolary novel Persian Letters written in 1721 by Montesquieu. In his work, the author neither introduces linguistic matters of the translations, nor he analyses their correctness; however, he presents strictly historical and cultural aspects of the process of translation. What is more, the article aims at presenting the intentions of Polish translators, the historical context of their work and its importance for a Polish reader. Regardless of the era when they produced their translations, starting as early as the eighteenth century, Polish translators always saw in Montesquieu’s Persian Letters something more than a simple and light epistolary novel of the Regency era.