The Books canon

Sourced and shelved.

Every book chosen by hand and annotated for why it matters.
Browse all 1,178 books or filter by subject, era, place, and author.
1 volume
SortEditorial Year Title
Subject·Orientalism✕clear
Fiction · Epistolary novel

Persian Letters

Montesquieu
1721 · 341 pages

Two Persian travelers in Paris write home about a king who conjures money from paper and a pope who makes bread into flesh. In Isfahan, the harem one of them left is collapsing.

★ 5.9