Misplaced Pages

#295704

79-548: Voltaire said of Du Halde's work: "Although it is developed out of Paris, and he hath not known the Chinese, [he] gave on the basis of the memoirs of his colleagues, the widest and the best description the empire of China has had worldwide." Du Halde entered the Society of Jesus in 1692 and became professor at the College of Paris succeeding Charles Le Gobien . From 1711 to 1743 he oversaw

158-479: A child, and he resurrected a variant of the name in his adult life. The name also reverses the syllables of Airvault , his family's home town in the Poitou region. Richard Holmes 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. These come from associations with words such as voltige (acrobatics on

237-553: A constitutional monarchy that protects people's rights. Arouet adopted the name Voltaire in 1718, following his incarceration at the Bastille. Its origin is unclear. It is an anagram of AROVET LI , the Latinized spelling of his surname, Arouet, and the initial letters of le jeune ("the young"). According to a family tradition among the descendants of his sister, he was known as le petit volontaire ("determined little thing") as

316-584: A contrary example with his own plays, decrying what he considered Shakespeare's barbarities. Voltaire may have been present at the funeral of Isaac Newton , and met Newton's niece Catherine Conduitt . In 1727, Voltaire published two essays in English, Upon the Civil Wars of France, Extracted from Curious Manuscripts and Upon Epic Poetry of the European Nations, from Homer Down to Milton . He also published

395-874: A decades-long English interest in China and Chinese thought. The philosophers of the Enlightenment drew on it for their thoughts and controversies about religions, cultures and customs, while European manufacturers discovered the secrets of Chinese geography and the first map of the Korea by Jean-Baptiste Régis and 42 maps of Chinese provinces by Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville . Voltaire Former Former François-Marie Arouet ( French: [fʁɑ̃swa maʁi aʁwɛ] ; 21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), known by his nom de plume M. de Voltaire ( / v ɒ l ˈ t ɛər , v oʊ l -/ , US also / v ɔː l -/ ; French: [vɔltɛːʁ] ),

474-729: A few days later. Seeking redress, Voltaire challenged Rohan to a duel, but the powerful Rohan family arranged for Voltaire to be arrested and imprisoned without trial in the Bastille on 17 April 1726. Fearing indefinite imprisonment, Voltaire asked to be exiled to England as an alternative punishment, which the French authorities accepted. On 2 May, he was escorted from the Bastille to Calais and embarked for Britain. In England, Voltaire lived largely in Wandsworth , with acquaintances including Everard Fawkener . From December 1727 to June 1728 he lodged at Maiden Lane, Covent Garden , now commemorated by

553-865: A large estate ( Les Délices ) in early 1755. 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. In late 1758, he bought an even larger estate at Ferney , on the French side of the Franco-Swiss border . The town would adopt his name, calling itself Ferney-Voltaire, and this became its official name in 1878. Early in 1759, Voltaire completed and published Candide, ou l'Optimisme ( Candide, or Optimism ). This satire on Leibniz's philosophy of optimistic determinism remains Voltaire's best-known work. He would stay in Ferney for most of

632-503: A letter about the Quakers after attending one of their services. After two and a half years in exile, Voltaire returned to France, and after a few months in Dieppe , the authorities permitted him to return to Paris. At a dinner, French mathematician Charles Marie de La Condamine proposed buying up the lottery that was organized by the French government to pay off its debts, and Voltaire joined

711-571: A licence to publish, in August 1722 Voltaire headed north to find a publisher outside France. On the journey, he was accompanied by his mistress, Marie-Marguerite de Rupelmonde, a young widow. At Brussels, Voltaire and Rousseau met up for a few days, before Voltaire and his mistress continued northwards. A publisher was eventually secured in The Hague. In the Netherlands, Voltaire was struck and impressed by

790-643: A meeting in September 1742 at Aix-la-Chapelle . Voltaire was sent to Frederick's court in 1743 by the French government as an envoy and spy to gauge Frederick's military intentions in the War of the Austrian Succession . Though deeply committed to the Marquise, Voltaire by 1744 found life at her château confining. On a visit to Paris that year, he found a new love—his niece. At first, his attraction to Marie Louise Mignot

869-520: A performance of Irene , where he was treated by the audience as a returning hero. He soon became ill again and died on 30 May 1778. The accounts of his deathbed have been numerous and varying, and it has not been possible to establish the details of what precisely occurred. His enemies related that he repented and accepted the last rites from a Catholic priest, or that he died in agony of body and soul, while his adherents told of his defiance to his last breath. According to one story of his last words, when

SECTION 10

#1732863250296

948-495: A plaque, to be nearer to his British publisher. 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's exile in Great Britain greatly influenced his thinking. He was intrigued by Britain's constitutional monarchy in contrast to French absolutism , and by

1027-417: A return letter, he do so by addressing it to Monsieur de Voltaire. A postscript explains: " J'ai été si malheureux sous le nom d'Arouet que j'en ai pris un autre surtout pour n'être plus confondu avec le poète Roi ", ("I was so unhappy under the name of Arouet that I have taken another, primarily so as to cease to be confused with the poet Roi.") This probably refers to Adenes le Roi , and the 'oi' diphthong

1106-665: A similar style to Voltaire's other works. 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. In a vast variety of nondescript pamphlets and writings, he displays his skills at journalism. 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 . Voltaire's works, especially his private letters, frequently urge

1185-467: A trapeze or horse), volte-face (a spinning about to face one's enemies), and volatile (originally, any winged creature). "Arouet" was not a noble name fit for his growing reputation, especially given that name's resonance with à rouer ("to be beaten up") and roué (a débauché ). In a letter to Jean-Baptiste Rousseau in March 1719, Voltaire concludes by asking that, if Rousseau wishes to send him

1264-493: A writer, against the wishes of his father, who wanted him to become a lawyer. Voltaire, pretending to work in Paris as an assistant to a notary, spent much of his time writing poetry. When his father found out, he sent Voltaire to study law, this time in Caen , Normandy. But the young man continued to write, producing essays and historical studies. Voltaire's wit made him popular among some of

1343-420: Is a novella that comments on, criticizes, and ridicules many events, thinkers and philosophies of his time, most notably Gottfried Leibniz and his belief that our world is of necessity the "best of all possible worlds". François-Marie Arouet was born in Paris, the youngest of the five children of François Arouet, a lawyer who was a minor treasury official, and his wife, Marie Marguerite Daumard, whose family

1422-399: Is an observation or saying that has some wit but perhaps descends into sarcasm , or otherwise is short of a point. A witticism also suggests the diminutive. Repartee is the wit of the quick answer and capping comment: the snappy comeback and neat retort. Metaphysical poetry as a style was prevalent in the time of English playwright William Shakespeare , who admonished pretension with

1501-672: The Bastille . The Comédie-Française had agreed in January 1717 to stage his debut play, Œdipe , and it opened in mid-November 1718, seven months after his release. Its immediate critical and financial success established his reputation. Both the Régent and King George I of Great Britain presented Voltaire with medals as a mark of their appreciation. Voltaire mainly argued for religious tolerance and freedom of thought. He campaigned to eradicate priestly and aristo-monarchical authority, and supported

1580-497: The Berlin Academy of Science and a former rival for Émilie's affections, provoked Voltaire's Diatribe du docteur Akakia ("Diatribe of Doctor Akakia"), which satirized some of Maupertuis's theories and his persecutions of a mutual acquaintance, Johann Samuel König . This greatly angered Frederick, who ordered all copies of the document burned. On 1 January 1752, Voltaire offered to resign as chamberlain and return his insignia of

1659-560: The Comédie-Française in April 1725 to a much-improved reception. It was among the entertainments provided at the wedding of Louis XV and Marie Leszczyńska in September 1725. In early 1726, the aristocratic chevalier de Rohan-Chabot taunted Voltaire about his change of name, and Voltaire retorted that his name would win the esteem of the world, while Rohan would sully his own. The furious Rohan arranged for his thugs to beat up Voltaire

SECTION 20

#1732863250296

1738-456: The Huguenot merchant Jean Calas . Calas had been tortured to death in 1763, supposedly because he had murdered his eldest son for wanting to convert to Catholicism. His possessions were confiscated, and his two daughters were taken from his widow and forced into Catholic convents. Voltaire, seeing this as a clear case of religious persecution, managed to overturn the conviction in 1765. Voltaire

1817-475: The "genius," "glory", and appearance of Chinese religion, ethics and ceremonies; science and medicine; money and commerce; the language and writing system; the production of porcelain and silkworm breeding . Its understandings of Chinese religion and philosophy were informed by the translations published in 1711 at Prague by the Jesuit François Noël , whose lack of the earlier Christian interpolations in

1896-524: The Bible. In these works, Voltaire's ironic style, free of exaggeration, is apparent, particularly the restraint and simplicity of the verbal treatment. Candide in particular is the best example of his style. Voltaire also has—in common with Jonathan Swift —the distinction of paving the way for science fiction's philosophical irony, particularly in his Micromégas and the vignette " Plato's Dream " (1756). In general, his criticism and miscellaneous writing show

1975-516: The Chinese text had caused them to be banned in the Papal States and the Holy Roman Empire . There is also an abstract of the explorations of Vitus Bering , which was the first European description of Alaska . The book was very quickly added to all academic libraries and has translated into most European languages. It had a significant impact on European society in the 18th century, including

2054-676: The Civil Wars in France". It was followed by La Henriade , an epic poem on the French King Henri IV , glorifying his attempt to end the Catholic-Protestant massacres with the Edict of Nantes , which established religious toleration. There followed a historical novel on King Charles XII of Sweden . These, along with his Letters on the English , mark the beginning of Voltaire's open criticism of intolerance and established religions. Voltaire and

2133-515: The English Nation (London, 1733). In 1734, they were published in Rouen as Lettres philosophiques , causing a huge scandal. 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. The book was publicly burnt and banned, and Voltaire

2212-536: The Great , then Crown Prince of Prussia and a great admirer of Voltaire, initiated a correspondence with him. That December, Voltaire moved to Holland for two months and became acquainted with the scientists Herman Boerhaave and Willem 's Gravesande . From mid-1739 to mid-1740 Voltaire lived largely in Brussels, at first with the Marquise, who was unsuccessfully attempting to pursue a 60-year-old family legal case regarding

2291-466: The Marquise also explored philosophy, particularly metaphysical questions concerning the existence of God and the soul. Voltaire and the Marquise analyzed the Bible and concluded that much of its content was dubious. Voltaire's critical views on religion led to his belief in separation of church and state and religious freedom, ideas that he had formed after his stay in England. In August 1736, Frederick

2370-455: The Marquise wrote a celebratory review in the Journal des savants . Voltaire's work was instrumental in bringing about general acceptance of Newton's optical and gravitational theories in France, in contrast to the theories of Descartes . Voltaire and the Marquise also studied history, particularly the great contributors to civilization. Voltaire's second essay in English had been "Essay upon

2449-477: The Order of Merit; at first, Frederick refused until eventually permitting Voltaire to leave in March. 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. The following morning, he was detained at an inn by Frederick's agents, who held him in the city for over three weeks while Voltaire and Frederick argued by letter over

Jean-Baptiste Du Halde - Misplaced Pages Continue

2528-525: The Spirit of the Nations (1756). He broke from the tradition of narrating diplomatic and military events, and emphasized customs, social history and achievements in the arts and sciences. The Essay on Customs traced the progress of world civilization in a universal context, rejecting both nationalism and the traditional Christian frame of reference. Influenced by Bossuet 's Discourse on Universal History (1682), he

2607-407: The aristocratic families with whom he mixed. In 1713, his father obtained a job for him as a secretary to the new French ambassador in the Netherlands, the marquis de Châteauneuf  [ fr ] , the brother of Voltaire's godfather. At The Hague , Voltaire fell in love with a French Protestant refugee named Catherine Olympe Dunoyer (known as 'Pimpette'). Their affair, considered scandalous,

2686-487: The authorities and denying any awkward responsibility. He continued to write plays, such as Mérope (or La Mérope française ) and began his long researches into science and history. Again, a main source of inspiration for Voltaire were the years of his British exile, during which he had been strongly influenced by Newton's works. Voltaire strongly believed in Newton's theories; he performed experiments in optics at Cirey, and

2765-465: The building's renovation, and Émilie's husband sometimes stayed at the château with his wife and her lover. The intellectual paramours collected around 21,000 books, an enormous number for the time. Together, they studied these books and performed scientific experiments at Cirey, including an attempt to determine the nature of fire. Having learned from his previous brushes with the authorities, Voltaire began his habit of avoiding open confrontation with

2844-659: The consortium, earning perhaps a million livres . He invested the money cleverly and on this basis managed to convince the Court of Finances of his responsible conduct, allowing him to take control of a trust fund inherited from his father. He was now indisputably rich. Further success followed in 1732 with his play Zaïre , which when published in 1733 carried a dedication to Fawkener praising English liberty and commerce. He published his admiring essays on British government, literature, religion, and science in Letters Concerning

2923-493: The country's greater freedom of speech and religion. He was influenced by the writers of the time, and developed an interest in English literature, especially Shakespeare , who was still little known in continental Europe. Despite pointing out Shakespeare's deviations from neoclassical standards, Voltaire saw him as an example for French drama, which, though more polished, lacked on-stage action. Later, however, as Shakespeare's influence began growing in France, Voltaire tried to set

3002-458: The definitive French version into the 21st century. Both she and Voltaire were also curious about the philosophy of Gottfried Leibniz , a contemporary and rival of Newton. While Voltaire remained a firm Newtonian, the Marquise adopted certain aspects of Leibniz's critiques. Voltaire's own book Elements of the Philosophy of Newton made the great scientist accessible to a far greater public, and

3081-432: The event by André Grétry . Voltaire had an enormous influence on the development of historiography through his demonstration of fresh new ways to look at the past. Guillaume de Syon argues: Voltaire recast historiography in both factual and analytical terms. 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

3160-529: The fact that a whole civilization is a unit of study". From an early age, Voltaire displayed a talent for writing verse, and his first published work was poetry. 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. The Henriade was written in imitation of Virgil , using the alexandrine couplet reformed and rendered monotonous for modern readers but it

3239-460: The follies of humankind. However, his relationship with Frederick began to deteriorate after he was accused of theft and forgery by a Jewish financier, Abraham Hirschel, who had invested in Saxon government bonds on behalf of Voltaire at a time when Frederick was involved in sensitive diplomatic negotiations with Saxony . He encountered other difficulties: an argument with Maupertuis , the president of

Jean-Baptiste Du Halde - Misplaced Pages Continue

3318-493: The invitation of Frederick the Great. The Prussian king (with the permission of Louis XV) made him a chamberlain in his household, appointed him to the Order of Merit , and gave him a salary of 20,000 French livres a year. He had rooms at Sanssouci and Charlottenburg Palace . Life went well for Voltaire at first, and in 1751 he completed Micromégas , a piece of science fiction involving ambassadors from another planet witnessing

3397-572: The king regularly invited pages, young cadets or lieutenants from his regiment to have coffee with him and then withdrew with the favourite for a quickie. However, the correspondence between them continued, and though they never met in person again, after the Seven Years' War they largely reconciled. Voltaire's slow progress toward Paris continued through Mainz , Mannheim , Strasbourg , and Colmar , but in January 1754 Louis XV banned him from Paris, and he turned for Geneva , near which he bought

3476-405: The letters "a feast not only of wit and eloquence but of warm friendship, humane feeling, and incisive thought." In Voltaire's correspondence with Catherine the Great he derided democracy. He wrote, "Almost nothing great has ever been done in the world except by the genius and firmness of a single man combating the prejudices of the multitude." Like other key Enlightenment thinkers, Voltaire

3555-563: The openness and tolerance of Dutch society. On his return to France, he secured a second publisher in Rouen , who agreed to publish La Henriade clandestinely. After Voltaire's recovery from a month-long smallpox infection in November 1723, the first copies were smuggled into Paris and distributed. While the poem was an instant success, Voltaire's new play, Mariamne , was a failure when it first opened in March 1724. Heavily reworked, it opened at

3634-680: The ownership of two estates in Limburg . In July 1740, he traveled to the Hague on behalf of Frederick in an attempt to dissuade a dubious publisher, van Duren, from printing without permission Frederick's Anti-Machiavel . In September Voltaire and Frederick (now King) met for the first time in Moyland Castle near Cleves and in November Voltaire was Frederick's guest in Berlin for two weeks, followed by

3713-717: The part of the historian, he did not miss many opportunities to expose the intolerance and frauds of the church over the ages. Voltaire advised scholars that anything contradicting the normal course of nature was not to be believed. Although he found evil in the historical record, he fervently believed reason and expanding literacy would lead to progress. 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." Voltaire's histories imposed

3792-423: The passivity inspired by Leibniz's philosophy of optimism through the character Pangloss's frequent refrain that, because God created it, this is of necessity the " best of all possible worlds ". L'Homme aux quarante ecus ( The Man of Forty Pieces of Silver ) addresses social and political ways of the time; Zadig and others, the received forms of moral and metaphysical orthodoxy; and some were written to deride

3871-432: The phrase "Better a witty fool than a foolish wit". It may combine word play with conceptual thinking, as a kind of verbal display requiring attention, without intending to be laugh-out-loud funny. Indeed wit in verse can be a thin disguise for more poignant feelings. English poet John Donne is the representative of this style. More generally, one's wits are one's intellectual powers of all types. Native wit —meaning

3950-547: The priest urged him to renounce Satan, he replied, "This is no time to make new enemies." Because of his well-known criticism of the Church, which he had refused to retract before his death, Voltaire was denied a Christian burial in Paris, but friends and relations managed to bury his body secretly at the Abbey of Scellières  [ fr ] in Champagne , where Marie Louise's brother

4029-520: The principles of true wisdom, to lead a Christian in the world), published in 1724. Drawn from the Jesuit Lettres Édifiantes et Curieuses and unpublished reports containing translations of Chinese texts of various origins, Du Halde's Geographical, Historical, Chronological, Political, and Physical Description of the Empire of China and Chinese Tartary appeared in Paris in four volumes in 1735; it

SECTION 50

#1732863250296

4108-430: The pseudonym S. G. Tallentyre in her 1906 biographical book The Friends of Voltaire . 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. Her interpretation does capture the spirit of Voltaire's attitude towards Helvétius; it had been said Hall's summary

4187-575: The publication of Lettres Édifiantes et Curieuses , written from Foreign Missions, by Jesuit missionaries in China , published in 34 volumes ranges between 1703 and 1776. He wrote prefaces for volumes IX to XXVI. He was also Secretary of Michel Le Tellier and confessor to the son of the regent in 1729. Du Halde is also the author of writings in Latin as well as a treatise entitled Le Sage chrétien, ou les Principes de la vraie sagesse, pour se conduire chrétiennement dans le monde (The Christian Sage, or

4266-527: The quarrels of competing sects. Amongst other targets, Voltaire criticized France's colonial policy in North America, dismissing the vast territory of New France as " a few acres of snow " (" quelques arpents de neige "). Voltaire also engaged in an enormous amount of private correspondence during his life, totalling over 20,000 letters. Theodore Besterman 's collected edition of these letters, completed only in 1964, fills 102 volumes. One historian called

4345-469: The reader: " écrasez l'infâme ", or "crush the infamous". The phrase refers to contemporaneous abuses of power by royal and religious authorities, and the superstition and intolerance fomented by the clergy. 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 . He stated in one of his most famous quotes that "Superstition sets

4424-613: The remaining 20 years of his life, frequently entertaining distinguished guests, such as James Boswell (who recorded their conversations in his journal and memoranda), Adam Smith , Giacomo Casanova , and Edward Gibbon . In 1764, he published one of his best-known philosophical works, the Dictionnaire philosophique , a series of articles mainly on Christian history and dogmas, a few of which were originally written in Berlin. From 1762, as an unmatched intellectual celebrity, he began to champion unjustly persecuted individuals, most famously

4503-645: The return of a satirical book of poetry Frederick had lent to Voltaire. Marie Louise joined him on 9 June. She and her uncle only left Frankfurt in July after she had defended herself from the unwanted advances of one of Frederick's agents, and Voltaire's luggage had been ransacked and valuable items taken. Voltaire's attempts to vilify Frederick for his agents' actions at Frankfurt were largely unsuccessful, including his Mémoires pour Servir à la Vie de M. de Voltaire, published posthumously, in which he also explicitly made mention of Frederick's homosexuality, when he described how

4582-578: The same father and creatures of the same God?" Wit Wit is a form of intelligent humour —the ability to say or write things that are clever and typically funny. Someone witty is a person who is skilled at making clever and funny remarks. Forms of wit include the quip , repartee , and wisecrack . As in the wit of Dorothy Parker 's set, the Algonquin Round Table , witty remarks may be intentionally cruel (as also in many epigrams ), and perhaps more ingenious than funny. A quip

4661-495: The two only met a month before Voltaire's death, and their interactions with each other were brief. In February 1778, Voltaire returned to Paris for the first time in over 25 years, partly to see the opening of his latest tragedy, Irene . The five-day journey was too much for the 83-year-old, and he believed he was about to die on 28 February, writing "I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition." However, he recovered, and in March he saw

4740-494: The values of the Enlightenment on the past, but at the same time he helped free historiography from antiquarianism, Eurocentrism, religious intolerance and a concentration on great men, diplomacy, and warfare. Yale professor Peter Gay says Voltaire wrote "very good history", citing his "scrupulous concern for truths", "careful sifting of evidence", "intelligent selection of what is important", "keen sense of drama", and "grasp of

4819-400: The whole world in flames; philosophy quenches them" ( La superstition met le monde entier en flammes; la philosophie les éteint ). The most oft-cited Voltaire quotation is apocryphal. He is incorrectly credited with writing, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." These were not his words, but rather those of Evelyn Beatrice Hall , written under

SECTION 60

#1732863250296

4898-568: Was abbé . His heart and brain were embalmed separately. On 11 July 1791, the National Assembly of France , regarding Voltaire as a forerunner of the French Revolution , had his remains brought back to Paris and enshrined in the Panthéon . An estimated million people attended the procession, which stretched throughout Paris. There was an elaborate ceremony, including music composed for

4977-676: Was a deist . He challenged orthodoxy by asking: "What is faith? Is it to believe that which is evident? No. It is perfectly evident to my mind that there exists a necessary, eternal, supreme, and intelligent being. This is no matter of faith, but of reason." In a 1763 essay, Voltaire supported the toleration of other religions and ethnicities: "It does not require great art, or magnificently trained eloquence, to prove that Christians should tolerate each other. I, however, am going further: I say that we should regard all men as our brothers. What? The Turk my brother? The Chinaman my brother? The Jew? The Siam? Yes, without doubt; are we not all children of

5056-642: Was a French Enlightenment writer, philosopher ( philosophe ), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit and his criticism of Christianity (especially of the Roman Catholic Church ) and of slavery , Voltaire was an advocate of freedom of speech , freedom of religion , and separation of church and state . Voltaire was a versatile and prolific writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays , poems, novels, essays, histories, and even scientific expositions . He wrote more than 20,000 letters and 2,000 books and pamphlets. Voltaire

5135-468: Was a huge success in the 18th and early 19th century, with sixty-five editions and translations into several languages. The epic poem transformed French King Henry IV into a national hero for his attempts at instituting tolerance with his Edict of Nantes. La Pucelle , on the other hand, is a burlesque on the legend of Joan of Arc . Many of Voltaire's prose works and romances, usually composed as pamphlets, were written as polemics . Candide attacks

5214-402: Was again forced to flee Paris. In 1733, Voltaire met Émilie du Châtelet (Marquise du Châtelet), a mathematician and married mother of three, who was 12 years his junior and with whom he was to have an affair for 16 years. To avoid arrest after the publication of Lettres , Voltaire took refuge at her husband's château at Cirey on the borders of Champagne and Lorraine . Voltaire paid for

5293-612: Was baptized on 22 November 1694, with François de Castagnère, abbé de Châteauneuf  [ fr ] , and Marie Daumard, the wife of his mother's cousin, standing as godparents. He was educated by the Jesuits at the Collège Louis-le-Grand (1704–1711), where he was taught Latin , theology, and rhetoric; later in life he became fluent in Italian, Spanish, and English. By the time he left school, Voltaire had decided he wanted to be

5372-459: Was clearly sexual, as evidenced by his letters to her (only discovered in 1957). Much later, they lived together, perhaps platonically, and remained together until Voltaire's death. Meanwhile, the Marquise also took a lover, the Marquis de Saint-Lambert . After the death of the Marquise in childbirth in September 1749, Voltaire briefly returned to Paris and in mid-1750 moved to Potsdam , Prussia, at

5451-513: Was discovered by de Châteauneuf and Voltaire was forced to return to France by the end of the year. Most of Voltaire's early life revolved around Paris. From early on, Voltaire had trouble with the authorities for critiques of the government. As a result, he was twice sentenced to prison and once to temporary exile to England. One satirical verse, in which Voltaire accused the Régent of incest with his daughter, resulted in an eleven-month imprisonment in

5530-466: Was initiated into Freemasonry a little over a month before his death. On 4 April 1778, he attended la Loge des Neuf Sœurs in Paris, and became an Entered Apprentice Freemason. According to some sources, "Benjamin Franklin ;... urged Voltaire to become a freemason; and Voltaire agreed, perhaps only to please Franklin." However, Franklin was merely a visitor at the time Voltaire was initiated,

5609-438: 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." Nevertheless, scholars believe there must have again been misinterpretation, as the letter does not seem to contain any such quote. Voltaire's first major philosophical work in his battle against " l'infâme "

5688-501: Was on the lowest rank of the French nobility . Some speculation surrounds Voltaire's date of birth, because he claimed he was born on 20 February 1694 as the illegitimate son of a nobleman, Guérin de Rochebrune or Roquebrune. Two of his older brothers—Armand-François and Robert—died in infancy, and his surviving brother Armand and sister Marguerite-Catherine were nine and seven years older, respectively. Nicknamed "Zozo" by his family, Voltaire

5767-467: Was one of the first authors to become renowned and commercially successful internationally. He was an outspoken advocate of civil liberties and was at constant risk from the strict censorship laws of the Catholic French monarchy. His polemics witheringly satirized intolerance and religious dogma , as well as the French institutions of his day. His best-known work and magnum opus , Candide ,

5846-515: Was one of the promulgators of the famous story of Newton's inspiration from the falling apple, which he had learned from Newton's niece in London and first mentioned in his Letters . In the fall of 1735, Voltaire was visited by Francesco Algarotti , who was preparing a book about Newton in Italian. Partly inspired by the visit, the Marquise translated Newton's Latin Principia into French, which remained

5925-401: Was reprinted in the Netherlands the next year and translated into English as The General History of China two years after that. Besides a very detailed geographical description based on work by the Jesuits , the book gave encyclopedic coverage of all aspects of Chinese civilization: the emperors and the government; the military and police institutions; the nobility; agriculture and handicrafts;

6004-457: Was rife with falsified evidence and required new investigations at the source. Such an outlook was not unique in that the scientific spirit that 18th-century intellectuals perceived themselves as invested with. A rationalistic approach was key to rewriting history. Voltaire's best-known histories are History of Charles XII (1731), The Age of Louis XIV (1751), and his Essay on the Customs and

6083-797: Was the Traité sur la tolérance ( Treatise on Tolerance ), exposing the Calas affair, along with the tolerance exercised by other faiths and in other eras (for example, by the Jews, the Romans, the Greeks and the Chinese). Then, in his Dictionnaire philosophique , containing such articles as "Abraham", "Genesis", "Church Council", he wrote about what he perceived as the human origins of dogmas and beliefs, as well as inhuman behavior of religious and political institutions in shedding blood over

6162-470: Was the first scholar to attempt seriously a history of the world, eliminating theological frameworks, and emphasizing economics, culture and political history. He treated Europe as a whole rather than a collection of nations. He was the first to emphasize the debt of medieval culture to Middle Eastern civilization, but otherwise was weak on the Middle Ages. Although he repeatedly warned against political bias on

6241-475: Was then pronounced like modern 'ouai', so the similarity to 'Arouet' is clear, and thus, it could well have been part of his rationale. Voltaire is known also to have used at least 178 separate pen names during his lifetime. Voltaire's next play, Artémire , set in ancient Macedonia, opened on 15 February 1720. It was a flop and only fragments of the text survive. He instead turned to an epic poem about Henry IV of France that he had begun in early 1717. Denied

#295704