Reviews for Letters to the Dutchess of Lesdiguieres

The average rating for Letters to the Dutchess of Lesdiguieres based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-12-01 00:00:00 Pierre Gasztowtt VI This book ostensibly about ancient Japan in the 8th Century but in reality , The Seven Year War 1756-1763, in Europe and around the world.Which by the way began unofficially in America, by George Washington, in 1754(The French and Indian War).Names and places were changed by Dr. Tobias Smollett to save himself,he was afraid of going to jail again, for libel.When an invisible atom begins talking to Nathaniel Peacock, a haberdasher ,you can imagine the hat salesman is a little scared and thinks he's losing his mind.He tells the voice to go away Satan..but of course,it does not. The atom recites tales of when it inhabited various bodies of prominent men of Japan(England).Their great conflict with China(France),Corea(Spain)and Japan's ally Brut-An- Tiffi (Frederick the Great of Prussia), eventually all of the continent is involved,the main focus is England. Taycho,the best orator in the land and leader of Japan(William Pitt).Struggles to prevent China, a much stronger nation, from invading his country.Got-Hama-Baba, The Emperor(George the Second), interferes with Taycho plans.The "Japanese" first minister also has mental problems, which cause him to be incapacitated during crucial events.If you stayed awake in your history class, you'll know who won the war but more important receive knowledge of people in the long ago era. P.S. they haven't changed much in 250 years...

Review # 2 was written on 2019-12-27 00:00:00 John Griffiths As you probably already know, this book is narrated by an immortal atom living in the pineal gland of an eighteenth-century London haberdasher, who dictates the story of his life in eighth-century Japan, back when he lived in the butt of a Japanese official and consequently was "privy" to affairs of state. The story he tells is a thinly veiled allegory for the (then-contemporary) Seven Years War, with Japan=Britain, China=France, etc. The result is as weird as you imagine. Unless you have a doctorate in eighteenth century politics, you'll probably want an edition with extensive notes (e.g. this one) to understand the barest amount of what's going on; even with notes, the book is difficult to read because for every character you must remember 1. a long and absurd pseudo-Japanese name and 2. a "real world" equivalent, whose name and function is only occasionally familiar to a layman. When it works (which is not so very often) though, the book offers wonderful examples of grotesquery: "He put them upon a diet of yeast; where this did not agree with the stomach, he employed his emissaries to blow up the patients à posteriori…The individuals thus inflated were seen swaggering about the streets, smooth and round, and sleek and jolly…" or absurdity: "[After the death of a commander] 'Tis an ill wind that blows nobody good:'the same disaster that deprived him of a good officer, afforded him the opportunity to shift the blame of neglect from his own shoulders to those of a person who could not answer for himself." Smollett makes a pretty good attempt to out-Rabelais Rabelais by throwing in ludicrous erudition mixed with nonstop scatology; but the very specific local interest of much of the allegory keeps it from hitting the Gargantuan heights. More a curiosity with flashes of brilliance than a must-read.