Montesquieu's Persian Letters is a landmark epistolary novel from the Age of Enlightenment. It cleverly critiques 18th-century French society through the correspondence of two fictional Persian travelers, Usbek and Rica. As they explore Paris, their letters offer an outsider's satirical and astonished view on European customs, politics, and religion. This narrative device allowed Montesquieu to discuss controversial topics like monarchy, social classes, and religious dogma with a freedom that would have been impossible otherwise, making it a foundational work of social and political satire.