Voltaire's Romances

by Peter Eckler (Editor)

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Romance

580 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1933

Reviews

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for free via Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/35595/...

This collection was published in 1889 and has many added illustrations and editor's notes pertaining to 22 novellas and shorts:

The White Bull (fantasy)
Zadig
The Sage and the Atheist
The Princess of Babylon (fantasy)
The Man of Forty Crowns
The Huron
Micromegas (science fiction)
The World as it Goes (fantasy)
The Black and the White (fantasy)
Memnon the Philosopher
André Des Touches at Siam
Bababec
The Study of Nature
A Conversation with a Chinese
Plato's Dream
Pleasure in Having No Pleasure (excerpt from Candide)
An Adventure in India
Jeannot and Colin
The Travels of Scarmentado
The Good Bramin
The Two Comforters
Ancient Faith and Fable

Almost all take place in Asia or the Middle East (with a number of Native Canadian characters) and pertain mainly to satirical discussions of religion, be the characters Hindu, Muslim, Catholic, Protestant, or atheist. A modern reader will probably need to google many of the references as they are not covered by the editor's notes: they'd be well-known 100-200 years ago.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have no argument with Voltaire. He was nearly rabid on the subject of Jesuits, so reading all these stories at once could get monotonous. My rating refers specifically to this edition. First, the footnotes pop up in bizarre places: sometimes at the end of a story, or the end of a chapter in the story, or in the middle of the narrative. It was difficult to follow these last. Second, the editor found it necessary to add footnotes to show off, rather than for explanation or translation. He quoted authors who lived hundreds of years after Voltaire, he injected opinions as facts, and wrote a few that were so completely off-topic I went back and reread both the narrative and the footnote several times to find any kind of link between the two. If you want to read Voltaire, spend the extra money to get linked footnotes written by a conscientious translator.

[Deb W · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the first two romances and decided to let this one go. It's a great collection, but I've lost my taste for older literature. Where I was intrigued by it as a young woman, I seem to have lost that now. I know there were many humorous parts that escaped me because I lacked the historic context. I am a product of our present-day inferior education.