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Voltaire Biography & Facts

François-Marie Arouet (French: [fʁɑ̃swa maʁi aʁwɛ]; 21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), known by his nom de plume M. de Voltaire (; also US: ; 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. 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. 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". Early life 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 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 was baptized on 22 November 1694, with François de Castagnère, abbé de Châteauneuf, 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 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 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, 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, 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 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 a constitutional monarchy that protects people's rights. Name 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 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 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 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 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. 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. He instead turned to an epic poem about Henry IV of France that he had begun in early 1717. 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.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 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 in.... Discover the Voltaire popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Voltaire books.

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  • Voltaire synopsis, comments

    Voltaire

    Pierre Milza

    La biographie de l'un des principaux promoteur de la tolérance et de la liberté d'opinion. Aujourd'hui plus que jamais, Voltaire est invoqué contre le fanatisme religieux et en fav...

  • A Visit From Voltaire synopsis, comments

    A Visit From Voltaire

    Dinah Lee Küng

    Nominated for the UK's Orange/Baileys Prize for Fiction, the comic novel "A Visit From Voltaire" brings the incorrigible 18thcentury troublemaker back to life as he haunts the Swis...

  • Rest in Pieces synopsis, comments

    Rest in Pieces

    Bess Lovejoy

    A “marvelously macabre” (Kirkus Reviews) history of the bizarre afterlives of corpses of the celebrated and notorious dead.For some of the most influential figures in history, deat...

  • Voltaire synopsis, comments

    Voltaire

    John Morley

    With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world. Who are w...

  • Voltaire in Love synopsis, comments

    Voltaire in Love

    Nancy Mitford & Adam Gopnik

    The inimitable Nancy Mitford’s account of Voltaire’s fifteenyear relationship with the Marquise du Châteletthe renowned mathematician who introduced Isaac Newton’s revolutionary ne...

  • The Seekers synopsis, comments

    The Seekers

    Daniel J. Boorstin

    Throughout history, from the time of Socrates to our own modern age, the human race has sought the answers to fundamental questions of life: Who are we?  Why are we here?...

  • The Collected Works of Voltaire synopsis, comments

    The Collected Works of Voltaire

    Voltaire

    The Collected Works of Voltaire is a collection of classic works by one of the most popular writers in history. The included works of Voltaire are Candide, The History of Peter the...

  • Passionate Minds synopsis, comments

    Passionate Minds

    David Bodanis

    It was 1733 when the poet and philosopher Voltaire met Emilie du Châtelet, a beguilingand marriedaristocrat who would one day popularize Newton’s arcane ideas and pave the way for ...

  • The Philosophy of Voltaire - Essential Works synopsis, comments

    The Philosophy of Voltaire - Essential Works

    Voltaire

    This unique collection of Voltaire's most renowned philosophical books has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards. FrançoisMarie Arouet (16941778), known...

  • Candide, in French synopsis, comments

    Candide, in French

    Voltaire

    According to Wikipedia: "FrançoisMarie Arouet (21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, essayist, and philosopher ...

  • The Enlightenment synopsis, comments

    The Enlightenment

    Anthony Pagden

    NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY KIRKUS REVIEWSOne of our most renowned and brilliant historians takes a fresh look at the revolutionary intellectual movement that laid t...

  • Frederick the Great synopsis, comments

    Frederick the Great

    Nancy Mitford & Liesl Schillinger

    An entertaining royal biography of Prussian king Frederick the Greata fascinating character with conflicting visions of authority and reform, power and artfrom “one of Britain’s mo...

  • Voltaire synopsis, comments

    Voltaire

    Ian Davidson

    The definitive biography of Voltaire's lifefrom his scandalous love affairs and political maneuverings to his inspired philosophy.We think of Voltaire as the archetypal figure of t...

  • The Enlightenment synopsis, comments

    The Enlightenment

    Ritchie Robertson

    A magisterial history that recasts the Enlightenment as a period not solely consumed with rationale and reason, but rather as a pursuit of practical means to achieve greater human ...

  • The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence synopsis, comments

    The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence

    Baltasar Gracián & Jeremy Robbins

    Written over 350 years ago, The Pocket Oracle and the Art of Prudence is a charming collection of 300 witty and thoughtprovoking aphorisms. From the art of being lucky to the healt...

  • The Age of Voltaire synopsis, comments

    The Age of Voltaire

    Will Durant & Ariel Durant

    The Story of Civilization, Volume IX: A history of civilization in Western Europe from 1715 to 1756, with special emphasis on the conflict between religion and philosophy. This is ...

  • Candide synopsis, comments

    Candide

    Francois Voltaire, Theo Cuffe, Michael Wood & Chris Ware

    "All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds" It was the indifferent shrug and callous inertia that this "optimism" concealed which so angered Voltaire, who found t...

  • Voltaire synopsis, comments

    Voltaire

    Georg Brandes

    Med århundraden av litteratur är det oundvikligt att en del faller mellan stolarna. Vi letar efter offentliga verk och återställer dem så att de inte går förlorade för världen. Vi...

  • Voltaire synopsis, comments

    Voltaire

    André Maurois

    Texte intégral révisé. Biographie de Voltaire. Pourquoi, parmi tous les philosophes du XVIIIe siècle, cet homme si peu philosophe estil apparu comme le plus illustre ? C'est peutêt...

  • Correspondance de Voltaire avec le roi de Prusse synopsis, comments

    Correspondance de Voltaire avec le roi de Prusse

    King of Prussia Frederick II

    On ne l'a pas assez remarqué, parce que Voltaire a tant fait, tant écrit; son activité s'est déployée de tant de côtés qu'on ne saurait prendre garde à tout, et qu'il est difficile...

  • Works of Voltaire synopsis, comments

    Works of Voltaire

    Voltaire

    This collection was designed for optimal navigation on iPad and other electronic devices. It is indexed alphabetically, chronologically and by category, making it easier to access...

  • The Collected Works of Voltaire synopsis, comments

    The Collected Works of Voltaire

    Voltaire, Virgil & Francois-Marie Arouet

    This comprehensive eBook presents the complete works or all the significant works the Œuvre of this famous and brilliant writer in one ebook 9148 pages easytoread and easytonavi...

  • Candide, in English translation synopsis, comments

    Candide, in English translation

    Voltaire

    According to Wikipedia: "FrançoisMarie Arouet (21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, essayist, and philosopher ...

  • The Invention of Science synopsis, comments

    The Invention of Science

    David Wootton

    "Captures the excitement of the scientific revolution and makes a point of celebrating the advances it ushered in." Financial TimesA companion to such acclaimed works as The Age of...

  • Obras de Voltaire synopsis, comments

    Obras de Voltaire

    Voltaire

    Cándido o el optimismo El blanco y el negro El hombre de los cuarenta escudos El mundo tal como va Historia de los viajes de escarmentado Historia de un buen brahmín La pr...

  • Making History synopsis, comments

    Making History

    Richard Cohen

    A “supremely entertaining” (The New Yorker) exploration of who gets to record the world’s historyfrom Julius Caesar to William Shakespeare to Ken Burnsand how their biases influenc...

  • Casanova synopsis, comments

    Casanova

    Laurence Bergreen

    “Sexy, surprising, funny, insightful, and wildly entertaining” (Huffington Post)the definitive biography of Giacomo Casanova, the impoverished boy who became the famous writer, not...