Voltaire AlmightyVoltaire Almighty provides a lively look at the life and thought of one of the major forces behind European Enlightenment. A rebel from start to finish (1694-1778), Voltaire was an ailing and unwanted bastard child who refused to die; and when he did consent to expire some eighty-four years later, he secured a Christian burial despite a bishop's ban. During much of his life Voltaire was the toast of society for his plays and verse, but his barbed wit and commitment to human reason got him into trouble. Jailed twice and eventually banished by the king, he was an outspoken critic of religious intolerance and persecution. His personal life was as colorful as his intellectual life. Of independent means and mind, Voltaire never married, but he had long-term affairs with two women: Emilie, who died after giving birth to the child of another lover, and his niece, Marie-Louise, with whom he spent the last twenty-five years of his life. The consummate outsider; a dissenter who craved acceptance while flamboyantly disdaining it; author of countless stories, poems, books, plays, treatises, and tracts as well as some twenty thousand letters to his friends: Voltaire lived a long, active life that makes for engaging and entertaining reading. |
Contents
1 | |
9 | |
19 | |
White Nights and Early Nights 17111718 | 32 |
Back to the Bastille 17181726 | 48 |
From Bonanza to Bombshell 17281733 | 85 |
Sex in Blue Stockings 17331735 | 109 |
A Marriage of True Minds 17351738 | 127 |
A KINGDOM OF ONES | 213 |
A Niece for a Wife or Househunting | 236 |
The Vineyard of Truth 17591763 | 269 |
April Foolery 17681769 | 323 |
The Last Act 17761778 | 364 |
Out Like a Candle MarchMay 1778 | 381 |
Conclusion | 395 |
CURTAIN CALL | 411 |
Worms in the Apple 17361739 | 142 |
Berlin or Paris? 17391745 162 ΙΟ | 162 |
The Way of the World 17451748 | 182 |
Select Bibliography | 433 |
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abbé Académie Française Academy Arouet Art Library Bastille began Berlin brother Calas Cardinal Fleury Catholic celebrated château Christian church Cirey Comédie-Française comte court d'Alembert d'Argental daughter death deist Desfontaines duc de Richelieu duchesse duly edition Émilie Émilie's Encyclopédie English enlightened father Ferney Fleury France François Frederick French Geneva guests Henriade honour human husband Jansenist Jean Calas Jean-Baptiste Rousseau Jesuit Jore King King's La Henriade later learnt less letter Lettres philosophiques live livres Louis XV Louis-le-Grand lover Lunéville marquis Maupertuis Mignot minister mistress Mlle Mme de Graffigny Mme de Pompadour Mme Denis Mme du Châtelet niece official once Paris parlement Parisian parlement Pays de Gex performance perhaps philosophes play poem Pomeau priest Protestant Prussia published Queen recently religious return to Paris Rousseau royal Saint-Lambert soon theatre Thiriot Tronchin Versailles verse Villette Voltaire Voltaire and Mme Voltaire's Wagnière wife write wrote young