Amazing. He treated Europe as a whole rather than a collection of nations. He wrote two book-long epic poems, including the first ever written in French, the Henriade, and later, The Maid of Orleans, besides many other smaller pieces. In the Zurich of 1916, the theatre and performance group who would become the early avant-garde Dada movement named their theater the Cabaret Voltaire. attributed to Voltaire, the words are in fact S. G. Tallentyre's summary in The Friends of Voltaire (1907); see Voltaire Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats. There is nothing about his philosophy, or his works, and yes this is very disappointing. "[163], In 1748, after having read Henri de Boulainvilliers and George Sale,[164] he wrote again about Mohammed and Islam in "De l'Alcoran et de Mahomet" ("On the Quran and on Mohammed"). Richard Holmes[32] supports the anagrammatic derivation of the name, but adds that a writer such as Voltaire would have intended it to also convey connotations of speed and daring. Voltaire's best-known histories are History of Charles XII (1731), The Age of Louis XIV (1751), and his Essay on the Customs and the Spirit of the Nations (1756). In his play, Mohammed was "whatever trickery can invent that is most atrocious and whatever fanaticism can accomplish that is most horrifying. Voltaire continues about Islam, saying: Nothing is more terrible than a people who, having nothing to lose, fight in the united spirit of rapine and of religion. [244] In his Lettres sur La Nouvelle Heloise, written under a pseudonym, Voltaire criticized Rousseau's grammatical mistakes: Paris recognized Voltaire's hand and judged the patriarch to be bitten by jealousy. At first, his attraction to Marie Louise Mignot was clearly sexual, as evidenced by his letters to her (only discovered in 1957). [20] Their affair, considered scandalous, was discovered by de Châteauneuf and Voltaire was forced to return to France by the end of the year. [142] His statements on religion also brought down on him the fury of the Jesuits and in particular Claude-Adrien Nonnotte. Voltaire also engaged in an enormous amount of private correspondence during his life, totalling over 20,000 letters. Voltaire, pseudonym of François-Marie Arouet, (born November 21, 1694, Paris, France—died May 30, 1778, Paris), one of the greatest of all French writers. ), yet all the other characters all come off as one-dimensional. In his own time, Voltaire (1694-1778) was the most famous and controversial figure in Europe. Voltaire may have been present at the funeral of Isaac Newton,[a] and met Newton's niece, Catherine Conduitt. His father tried to encourage Voltaire to become a lawyer, but Voltaire was more interested in becoming a writer. Voltaire's early years are discussed, and it was not long into adulthood before his views on free speech, free thought, and religion got him on the wrong side of the ancien régime (readers will discover just how authoritarian that régime was). Read this book using Google Play Books app on your PC, android, iOS devices. an enlightening, amusing, and fun bio of one of the first thinkers to question the "right" of the rich to treat everybody else live their slave, and fascinating look at Voltaires interactions, friendships and fusses with Diderot, d'Alembert, Frederick [the great], madame de deffand, de Condorcet, his closest friend d'Argental, etc etc etc. Well done. [94], Voltaire's slow progress toward Paris continued through Mainz, Mannheim, Strasbourg, and Colmar,[95] but in January 1754 Louis XV banned him from Paris,[96] and he turned for Geneva, near which he bought a large estate (Les Délices) in early 1755. [168][173][174] Here he called Mohammed a "poet", and stated that he was not an illiterate. [60][b] Published without approval of the royal censor, the essays lauded British constitutional monarchy as more developed and more respectful of human rights than its French counterpart, particularly regarding religious tolerance. [226][228] In October 1763, she began a correspondence with the philosopher that continued till his death. Oh, Voltaire, won't you be my historical boyfriend? [169], In his Essay on the Manners and Spirit of Nations (published 1756), Voltaire deals with the history of Europe before Charlemagne to the dawn of the age of Louis XIV, and that of the colonies and the East. [243], In reviewing Rousseau's book Emile, Voltaire dismissed it as "a hodgepodge of a silly wet nurse in four volumes, with forty pages against Christianity, among the boldest ever known." [50] Voltaire circulated throughout English high society, meeting Alexander Pope, John Gay, Jonathan Swift, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, and many other members of the nobility and royalty. Voltaire explains his view of historiography in his article on "History" in Diderot's Encyclopédie: "One demands of modern historians more details, better ascertained facts, precise dates, more attention to customs, laws, mores, commerce, finance, agriculture, population." Should be compulsory reading for anybody living in Ferney (you know who you are)! Almost all of his more substantive works, whether in verse or prose, are preceded by prefaces of one sort or another, which are models of his caustic yet conversational tone. This, of necessity is much more expansive. [160] As stated by Durant, Voltaire had praised the simplicity, sobriety, regularity, and industry of Jews. The content of these letters has been described as being akin to a student writing to a teacher. Subsequently, Voltaire agreed with the criticism of his anti-Semitic views and stated that he had been "wrong to attribute to a whole nation the vices of some individuals";[161] he also promised to revise the objectionable passages for forthcoming editions of the Dictionnaire philosophique, but failed to do so. "[126] Nevertheless, scholars believe there must have again been misinterpretation, as the letter does not seem to contain any such quote.[e]. Ian Davidson's "Voltaire: A Life" is a full-scale biography of the indispensable Enlightenment thinker. [195], In a 1745 letter recommending the play to Pope Benedict XIV, Voltaire described Muhammad as "the founder of a false and barbarous sect" and "a false prophet". [46] Calas had been tortured to death in 1763, supposedly because he had murdered his eldest son for wanting to convert to Catholicism. Voltaire lived long enough to see some of his long-term legacies startto concretize. [91] On 1 January 1752, Voltaire offered to resign as chamberlain and return his insignia of the Order of Merit; at first, Frederick refused until eventually permitting Voltaire to leave in March. Whatever anti-semitism Voltaire may have felt, Gay suggests, derived from negative personal experience. « Essai sur les Mœurs et l'Esprit des Nations » (1756), dans Œuvres complètes de Voltaire, Voltaire. What a life? If there’s life on other planets, then the earth is the Universe’s insane asylum. [46], He soon became ill again and died on 30 May 1778. This dazzling new biography celebrates his extraordinary life. The point of biography is to tell the story of a life and - if possible - to tell you why that life in particular was significant. Voltaire: A Life … Many of Voltaire's prose works and romances, usually composed as pamphlets, were written as polemics. He met such English men of letters as Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, and William Congreve, the philosopher George Berkeley, and Samuel Clarke, the theologian. Historians have described Voltaire's description of the history of Christianity as "propagandistic". He particularly had admiration for the ethics and government as exemplified by the Chinese philosopher Confucius. I would recommend it as a good place to start on matters Voltaire , his writings & contemporaries. Fitzpatrick, Martin (2000). But that experience was all Voltaire and I ever shared. Voltaire - Voltaire - Exile to England: During a stay that lasted more than two years he succeeded in learning the English language; he wrote his notebooks in English and to the end of his life he was able to speak and write it fluently. "The Atheist's Bible", p. 198, by Georges Minois, 2012. I promise, you + me = the best of all possible worlds! an entertaining and informative bio of Voltaire, Ian Davidson now THE expert on voltaire in the pop bio field with this title and his "Voltaire in Exile: the last years, 1753-1778", which this title here also covers, maybe even better than the "exile" title, though "A life" covers the years 1700-1778. Voltaire wrote: "Your holiness will pardon the liberty taken by one of the lowest of the faithful, though a zealous admirer of virtue, of submitting to the head of the true religion this performance, written in opposition to the founder of a false and barbarous sect. His father was a lawyer, but his mother was on the lowest rank of French nobility. His remarks on the Jews and their "superstitions" were essentially no different from his remarks on Christians. [229] Upon Voltaire's death, the Empress purchased his library, which was then transported and placed in The Hermitage. Seeing both the light and dark within a personality fosters a hope that we, as individuals, are capable of rising above our flaws in brief, shining moments that can indeed have a positive, lasting impact. In 1778, when Voltaire was given unprecedented honors at the Théâtre-Français,[247] an acquaintance of Rousseau ridiculed the event. [263] He founded the Voltaire Institute and Museum in Geneva where he began publishing collected volumes of Voltaire's correspondence. Voltaire was educated at the College Louis-le-Grand. "[222] Goethe regarded Voltaire as the greatest literary figure of modern times, and possibly of all time. He is incorrectly credited with writing, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." His life. Familiar though I was with the quantity of work Voltaire produced during his lifetime, the depth and variety of his correspondence was a surprise. Voltaire's library is preserved intact in the National Library of Russia at Saint Petersburg. "[203] Voltaire was himself a supporter of animal rights and was a vegetarian. ... My one regret in dying is that I cannot aid you in this noble enterprise, the finest and most respectable which the human mind can point out."[139][140]. “I have wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but somehow I am still in love with life. [230] Alexander Herzen remarked that "The writings of the egoist Voltaire did more for liberation than those of the loving Rousseau did for brotherhood. He established himself as one of the leading writers of the Enlightenment era, with great works such as the satirical novella Candide and the tragic play Zaïre. [210] Voltaire wrote favourably of the idea, claiming that the Chinese had "perfected moral science" and advocating an economic and political system modeled after that of the Chinese. The more I read Voltaire the more I love him. Ian Davidson's Voltaire: A Life does an excellent job of the first but at best a middling job of the second. At times I worried that I was starting to dislike my hero, but by the end, when Voltaire's campaigns against the death penalty are described, my faith was restored. Instead, it is a jargon-free reappraisal, told in mostly brisk prose. Voltaire and the Marquise analyzed the Bible and concluded that much of its content was dubious. As a result, he was twice sentenced to prison and once to temporary exile to England. "[220] In speaking of Persia, he condemned Europe's "ignorant audacity" and "ignorant credulity". Watts, Edward Jay. Worth reading, nonetheless. He was imprisoned in the Bastille for nearly a year. [248], On 2 July 1778, Rousseau died one month after Voltaire. Nietzsche speaks of "la gaya scienza, the light feet, wit, fire, grace, strong logic, arrogant intellectuality, the dance of the stars"—surely he was thinking of Voltaire. [264][265] The Foundation has continued to publish the Complete Works of Voltaire, a complete chronological series expected to reach completion in 2018 with around 200 volumes, fifty years after the series began. One satirical verse, in which Voltaire accused the Régent of incest with his daughter, resulted in an eleven-month imprisonment in the Bastille. Voltaire distrusted democracy, which he saw as propagating the idiocy of the masses. While Voltaire remained a firm Newtonian, the Marquise adopted certain aspects of Leibniz's critiques. Start by marking “Voltaire: A Life” as Want to Read: Error rating book. [189] When Voltaire wrote in 1742 to César de Missy, he described Mohammed as deceitful.[190][191]. [123] He had seen and felt these effects in his own exiles, the burnings of his books and those of many others, and in the atrocious persecution of Jean Calas and François-Jean de la Barre. Ian Davidson did something amazing. [92] On a slow journey back to France, Voltaire stayed at Leipzig and Gotha for a month each, and Kassel for two weeks, arriving at Frankfurt on 31 May. Death is just as beautiful as a saintly life or just as dark as an unbelieving life. [43] The furious de Rohan arranged for his thugs to beat up Voltaire a few days later. A nice introduction for a novice Voltaire reader. October 15th 2010 Voltaire meant for this argument to bolster one of his anti-Catholic tracts. [252], 18th-century French writer, historian and philosopher, Significant civil and political events by year, Dobre and Nyden suggest that there is no clear evidence that Voltaire was present; see, Contrary to the idea that Voltaire wrote the, It was rumoured that in May 1814, his and Rousseau's bones were removed from the Panthéon and discarded on the outskirts of Paris by supporters of the, Charles Wirz, archivist at the Voltaire Institute and Museum in Geneva, recalled in 1994, that Hall 'wrongly' placed this quotation between speech marks in two of her works about Voltaire, recognising expressly the quotation in question was not one, in a letter of 9 May 1939, which was published in 1943 in volume LVIII under the title "Voltaire never said it" (pp. Not only did he reject traditional biographies and accounts that claim the work of supernatural forces, but he went so far as to suggest that earlier historiography was rife with falsified evidence and required new investigations at the source. He was intrigued by Britain's constitutional monarchy in contrast to French absolutism, and by the country's greater freedom of speech and religion. "[192][193] After later having judged that he had made Mohammed in his play "somewhat nastier than he really was",[194] Voltaire claims that Muhammad stole the idea of an angel weighing both men and women from Zoroastrians, who are often referred to as "Magi". [58] He published his admiring essays on British government, literature, religion and science in Letters Concerning the English Nation (London, 1733). In a letter to Jean-Baptiste Rousseau in March 1719, Voltaire concludes by asking that, if Rousseau wishes to send him a return letter, he do so by addressing it to Monsieur de Voltaire. "[149] Yet, according to Daniel-Rops, Voltaire's "hatred of religion increased with the passage of years. However, as it is more than sixty years since I lost that habit, I feel, unfortunately, that it is impossible for me to resume it.[242]. [50], In the fall of 1735, Voltaire was visited by Francesco Algarotti, who was preparing a book about Newton in Italian. However, the correspondence between them continued, and though they never met in person again, after the Seven Years' War they largely reconciled. [g] Matteo Ricci was among the earliest to report on the thoughts of Confucius, and father Prospero Intorcetta wrote about the life and works of Confucius in Latin in 1687. [162] In a 1740 letter to Frederick II of Prussia, Voltaire ascribes to Muhammad a brutality that "is assuredly nothing any man can excuse" and suggests that his following stemmed from superstition; Voltaire continued, "But that a camel-merchant should stir up insurrection in his village; that in league with some miserable followers he persuades them that he talks with the angel Gabriel; that he boasts of having been carried to heaven, where he received in part this unintelligible book, each page of which makes common sense shudder; that, to pay homage to this book, he delivers his country to iron and flame; that he cuts the throats of fathers and kidnaps daughters; that he gives to the defeated the choice of his religion or death: this is assuredly nothing any man can excuse, at least if he was not born a Turk, or if superstition has not extinguished all natural light in him. Welcome back. Emancipation became important to Jefferson in later life, but—like Voltaire—financial considerations often took precedence over common decency, meaning he kept hold of his human assets. [112][d] An estimated million people attended the procession, which stretched throughout Paris. In pure literary criticism his principal work is the Commentaire sur Corneille, although he wrote many more similar works—sometimes (as in his Life and Notices of Molière) independently and sometimes as part of his Siècles. "[125], The most oft-cited Voltaire quotation is apocryphal. Her interpretation does capture the spirit of Voltaire's attitude towards Helvetius; it had been said Hall's summary was inspired by a quotation found in a 1770 Voltaire letter to an Abbot le Riche, in which he was reported to have said, "I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write. It is an anagram of AROVET LI, the Latinized spelling of his surname, Arouet, and the initial letters of le jeune ("the young"). [97] Though he was received openly at first, the law in Geneva, which banned theatrical performances, and the publication of The Maid of Orleans against his will soured his relationship with Calvinist Genevans. What? When Voltaire was … [36] Denied a licence to publish, in August 1722 Voltaire headed north to find a publisher outside France. 20 New Books on Women’s History. Hall intended to summarize in her own words Voltaire's attitude towards Claude Adrien Helvétius and his controversial book De l'esprit, but her first-person expression was mistaken for an actual quotation from Voltaire. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published [251][k], Voltaire perceived the French bourgeoisie to be too small and ineffective, the aristocracy to be parasitic and corrupt, the commoners as ignorant and superstitious, and the Church as a static and oppressive force useful only on occasion as a counterbalance to the rapacity of kings, although all too often, even more rapacious itself. "[101][102][103] However, Franklin was merely a visitor at the time Voltaire was initiated, the two only met a month before Voltaire's death, and their interactions with each other were brief. In this essay, Voltaire maintained that Mohammed was a "sublime charlatan"[f] Drawing on complementary information in Herbelot's "Oriental Library", Voltaire, according to René Pomeau, adjudged the Quran, with its "contradictions, ... absurdities, ... anachronisms", to be "rhapsody, without connection, without order, and without art". [65] The intellectual paramours collected around 21,000 books, an enormous number for the time. Word was that a certain Durey de Morsan had penned it, with Voltaire supplying the ‘anecdotes’ and the ‘style’ (according to Moultou writing to Meister on 4 November 1776). [235] The section condemning the futility and imbecility of war in the Dictionnaire philosophique was a frequent favorite, as were his arguments that nations can only grow at the expense of others. [183] As a result, his book, Fanaticism (Mohammad the Prophet), inspired Goethe, who was attracted to Islam, to write a drama on this theme, though completed only the poem Mahomets-Gesang ("Mahomet's Singing"). [155] Bertram Schwarzbach's far more detailed studies of Voltaire's dealings with Jewish people throughout his life concluded that he was anti-biblical, not anti-semitic. 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