Voltaire

"If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others?" - CANDIDE Candide is a French satire first published in 1759 by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment. It is the absurdly melodramatic story of a young man, Candide, living a sheltered life who clings desperately to "the best of all possible worlds," one which is abruptly interrupted by a series of painfully disillusioning events that set him off on a wide-ranging journey....

Le jeune Candide travaillait dans un château pour un baron, et avait pour maître Pangloss, qui professait une philosophie leibnizienne déformée et clamant qu'ils vivaient dans le meilleur des mondes possibles. Malheureusement pour le garçon, il est mis à la porte du château après un baiser volé et se retrouve sur la route, allant de mésaventure en mésaventure, mais s'accrochant néanmoins désespérément à cet optimisme appris. Ce célèbre...

A masterpiece of Enlightenment-era literature, this collection of brief, incisive essays constitutes a thought-provoking analysis of eighteenth-century social and religious conventions. Voltaire intended to entertain as well as to enlighten, and his sardonic wit lends a strikingly modern feeling to these writings. One of France's most celebrated citizens, Voltaire (1694-1778) is best known for his satirical novel Candide. His political treatises,...

François-Marie Arouet wrote under the nom de plume of Voltaire, and produced works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. Zadig is a philosopher in ancient Babylonia. Voltaire did not attempt historical accuracy with this book. Many of the problems Zadig faces are thinly disguised references to social and political problems of Voltaire's own day. Zadig is philosophical in nature,...

François-Marie Arouet wrote under the nom de plume of Voltaire, and produced works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. Fate would make us wretched here, But hope shall dry up every tear; In sorrow he shall give us rest, And make us even in anguish blest: Love shall preserve us from the paths of vice, And strew his flowers around the precipice.

François-Marie Arouet wrote under the nom de plume of Voltaire, and produced works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. Socrates is a play in three acts about Socrates and the events of his trial and eventual death. Satirical in nature it takes aim at government authority and organized religion. Voltaire's contempt for government and religion come, through clearly in this play....

The great Enlightenment thinker shares his views on the nature and practice of history in this fascinating critique of historical narratives. In The Philosophy of History, Voltaire present a radical reinterpretation of the moral, aesthetic, and religious views and the customs and practices that prevailed in ancient civilizations. His critique touches on a range of topics, from cultures across the globe to legislators who spoke in the name of the...

François-Marie Arouet wrote under the nom de plume of Voltaire, and produced works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. Brutus was produced in 1730. It marks Voltaire's spirit of daring in treating a subject from which Shakespeare shrank as, perhaps, too painful for representation. When revived during the Revolution it was enthusiastically applauded.

François-Marie Arouet wrote under the nom de plume of Voltaire, and produced works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. Alzire first appeared on the stage in 1736 to great acclaim and success. Alzire is set Lima, Peru, at the time of the Spanish conquest. Don Gusman, a Spanish grandee, has just succeeded his father, Don Alvarez, in the Governorship of Peru. The rule of Don Alvarez...

François-Marie Arouet wrote under the nom de plume of Voltaire, and produced works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. "I don't belong to the house, sir; but I spend most of my time in the coffee-room; write news, politics, and so forth, and am always ready to do an honest gentleman service. If you have any friend you want to have praised, or any enemy to be abused; any author...