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Voltaire

Born

in Paris, France

November 21, 1694

Died

May 30, 1778

Genre

Philosophy, Literature & Fiction, History

Influences

John Toland, William Shakespeare, Anthony Collins, Matthew Tindal, Ant ...more

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Complete works (1880) : https://archive.org/details/oeuvresco...

In 1694, Age of Enlightenment leader Francois-Marie Arouet, known as Voltaire, was born in Paris. Jesuit-educated, he began writing clever verses by the age of 12. He launched a lifelong, successful playwriting career in 1718, interrupted by imprisonment in the Bastille. Upon a second imprisonment, in which Francois adopted the pen name Voltaire, he was released after agreeing to move to London. There he wrote Lettres philosophiques (1733), which galvanized French reform. The book also satirized the religious teachings of Rene Descartes and Blaise Pascal, including Pascal's famed "wager" on God. Voltaire wrote: "The interest I have in believing a thing is not a proof of the exi Complete works (1880) : https://archive.org/details/oeuvresco...

In 1694, Age of Enlightenment leader Francois-Marie Arouet, known as Voltaire, was born in Paris. Jesuit-educated, he began writing clever verses by the age of 12. He launched a lifelong, successful playwriting career in 1718, interrupted by imprisonment in the Bastille. Upon a second imprisonment, in which Francois adopted the pen name Voltaire, he was released after agreeing to move to London. There he wrote Lettres philosophiques (1733), which galvanized French reform. The book also satirized the religious teachings of Rene Descartes and Blaise Pascal, including Pascal's famed "wager" on God. Voltaire wrote: "The interest I have in believing a thing is not a proof of the existence of that thing." Voltaire's French publisher was sent to the Bastille and Voltaire had to escape from Paris again, as judges sentenced the book to be "torn and burned in the Palace." Voltaire spent a calm 16 years with his deistic mistress, Madame du Chatelet, in Lorraine. He met the 27 year old married mother when he was 39. In his memoirs, he wrote: "I found, in 1733, a young woman who thought as I did, and decided to spend several years in the country, cultivating her mind." He dedicated Traite de metaphysique to her. In it the Deist candidly rejected immortality and questioned belief in God. It was not published until the 1780s. Voltaire continued writing amusing but meaty philosophical plays and histories. After the earthquake that leveled Lisbon in 1755, in which 15,000 people perished and another 15,000 were wounded, Voltaire wrote Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne (Poem on the Lisbon Disaster): "But how conceive a God supremely good/ Who heaps his favours on the sons he loves,/ Yet scatters evil with as large a hand?"

Voltaire purchased a chateau in Geneva, where, among other works, he wrote Candide (1759). To avoid Calvinist persecution, Voltaire moved across the border to Ferney, where the wealthy writer lived for 18 years until his death. Voltaire began to openly challenge Christianity, calling it "the infamous thing." He wrote Frederick the Great: "Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd, and bloody religion that has ever infected the world." Voltaire ended every letter to friends with "Ecrasez l'infame" (crush the infamy — the Christian religion). His pamphlet, The Sermon on the Fifty (1762) went after transubstantiation, miracles, biblical contradictions, the Jewish religion, and the Christian God. Voltaire wrote that a true god "surely cannot have been born of a girl, nor died on the gibbet, nor be eaten in a piece of dough," or inspired "books, filled with contradictions, madness, and horror." He also published excerpts of Testament of the Abbe Meslier, by an atheist priest, in Holland, which advanced the Enlightenment. Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary was published in 1764 without his name. Although the first edition immediately sold out, Geneva officials, followed by Dutch and Parisian, had the books burned. It was published in 1769 as two large volumes. Voltaire campaigned fiercely against civil atrocities in the name of religion, writing pamphlets and commentaries about the barbaric execution of a Huguenot trader, who was first broken at the wheel, then burned at the stake, in 1762. Voltaire's campaign for justice and restitution ended with a posthumous retrial in 1765, during which 40 Parisian judges declared the defendant innocent. Voltaire urgently tried to save the life of Chevalier de la Barre, a 19 year old sentenced to death for blasphemy for failing to remove his hat during a religious procession. In 1766, Chevalier was beheaded after being tortured, then his body was burned, along with a copy of Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary. Voltaire's statue at the Pantheon was melted down during Nazi occupation. D. 1778.

Voltaire (1694-1778), pseudónimo de François- ...more

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Voltaire’s books

Average rating: 3.76 · 355,967 ratings · 18,037 reviews · 9,429 distinct works • Similar authors

	Candide 3.76 avg rating — 300,562 ratings — published 1759 — 4152 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Micromegas 3.65 avg rating — 6,832 ratings — published 1752 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Zadig et autres contes 3.79 avg rating — 6,345 ratings — published 1747 — 83 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Candide and Other Stories by Voltaire, Roger Pearson (Translator) 3.93 avg rating — 5,117 ratings — published 1759 — 105 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	L'Ingénu 3.52 avg rating — 4,302 ratings — published 1767	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Zadig 3.69 avg rating — 3,355 ratings — published 1747 — 513 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Candide, Zadig and Selected Stories by Voltaire, Marcell Benedek (Translator), Donald M. Frame, John Iverson (Introduction), Albert Gyregyai (Translator) 4.11 avg rating — 2,771 ratings — published 1961 — 42 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Candido - L'ingenuo by Voltaire, Maria Moneti (Translator) 3.58 avg rating — 2,962 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Letters on England 3.67 avg rating — 2,822 ratings — published 1733 — 131 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	رسالة في التسامح 3.79 avg rating — 2,699 ratings — published 1763 — 269 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Voltaire…

Series by Voltaire

Histoire de Charles XII (2 books)
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3.94 avg rating — 198 ratings

Les Pamphlets de Voltaire (1 book)
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4.04 avg rating — 98 ratings

Huck and Jim are headed down the Mississippi once again, but this time it is James who is telling the tale. In his latest novel, James,...

Polls

September 2015 Short Story Poll

1754, Candide by Voltaire, 94 pages

35 votes, 26.7%

1936, At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft, 130 pages

17 votes, 13.0%

1924, A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka, 84 pages

14 votes, 10.7%

1905, The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 64 pages

13 votes, 9.9%

1952, Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, 109 pages

11 votes, 8.4%

1905, The Game by Jack London, 103 pages

9 votes, 6.9%

1936, Double Indemnity by James M. Cain, 115 pages

8 votes, 6.1%

1921, The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield, 12 pages

8 votes, 6.1%

1943, Chess Story by Stefan Zweig, 84 pages

5 votes, 3.8%

1965,Everything That Rises Must Converge: Stories by Flannery O'Connor, 25 pages (Title Story Only)

4 votes, 3.1%

1955, Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo, 128 pages

3 votes, 2.3%

1890, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce, 36 pages

2 votes, 1.5%

1971, Reunion by Fred Uhlman, 96 pages

2 votes, 1.5%

131 total votes

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