Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (French: [fʁɑ̃swa maʁi aʁwɛ]; 21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), known by his nom de plume M. de Voltaire (/vɒlˈtɛər, voʊl-/;[2][3][4] also US: /vɔːl-/;[5][6] French: [vɔltɛːʁ]), 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.
For other uses, see Voltaire (disambiguation).
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet
21 November 1694
Paris, Kingdom of France
30 May 1778 (aged 83)
Paris, Kingdom of France
Panthéon, Paris
Writer, philosopher, historian
French
Religious intolerance, freedom
From 1715
Émilie du Châtelet (1733–1749)
Marie Louise Mignot (1744–1778)
Voltaire was a versatile and prolific writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, histories, but also scientific expositions. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and 2,000 books and pamphlets.[7] Voltaire 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, is a novella which comments on, criticizes and ridicules many events, thinkers and philosophies of his time, most notably Gottfried Leibniz and his belief that our world is the "best of all possible worlds".[8][9]
Career
Early fiction
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.[32] He instead turned to an epic poem about Henry IV of France that he had begun in early 1717.[33] Denied 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.[34]
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.[35] In the Netherlands, Voltaire was struck and impressed by the openness and tolerance of Dutch society.[36] On his return to France, he secured a second publisher in Rouen, who agreed to publish La Henriade clandestinely.[37] After Voltaire's recovery from a month-long smallpox infection in November 1723, the first copies were smuggled into Paris and distributed.[38] While the poem was an instant success, Voltaire's new play, Mariamne, was a failure when it first opened in March 1724.[39] Heavily reworked, it opened at the Comédie-Française in April 1725 to a much-improved reception.[39] It was among the entertainments provided at the wedding of Louis XV and Marie Leszczyńska in September 1725.[39]
Great Britain
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.[40] The furious Rohan arranged for his thugs to beat up Voltaire a few days later.[41] 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.[42][43] Fearing indefinite imprisonment, Voltaire asked to be exiled to England as an alternative punishment, which the French authorities accepted.[44] On 2 May, he was escorted from the Bastille to Calais and embarked for Britain.[45]
Writings
History
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:
