Title: NOT originally written in English!
Review: As the other reviewers mention, the main selling point of this edition is that it contains Voltaire's original English versions of some of the letters - this is proclaimed on the back cover, and is the theme of the critical introduction.Yet as the little tucked away "Supplementary bibliography (2005)" says on page xxxvi:"Since the first publication of this edition in 1994, it has been shown that Voltaire wrote all the text of the Letters in French, and that the Letters Concerning the English Nation are a translation by John Lockman".So, this edition does NOT contain Voltaire's own words, but rather a bad translation from 1742. It seems it was too much hard work for Nicholas Cronk to rewrite his introduction, or even for OUP to change the back cover.As it stands, much of the critical material is rendered obsolete, though perhaps less so than the 250 year-old translation.Buy the Penguin edition instead - modern translation, half the price, no disproven theories.
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