The Cambridge Companion to Voltaire

by Edited by Nicholas Cronk

• ISBN13: 9780521614955
• ISBN10: 0521614953
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-03-16
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

As a leading thinker of the European Enlightenment, Voltaire is a central figure in France's collective cultural memory. The popularity of Candide has made him perhaps best known as a writer of tales. Yet these represent only a fraction of his entire Å"uvre. Voltaire created a style of authorship which made him the most famous writer in Europe and made him a figurehead for a certain style of writing and thinking. This Companion covers his plays, fiction, pamphlets, correspondence, biblical criticism, and historical, political and philosophical thought, to give a wide-ranging view of his writings. The most comprehensive book on Voltaire available in English, it makes accessible the most recent research in France as well as the English-speaking world, in a series of original essays and a guide to sources. The essays demonstrate why Voltaire remains an essential point of reference in defining the modern intellectual today.

Table of Contents

Chronology

Introduction

The making of a name: a life of Voltaire

Voltaire and authorship

Voltaire, philosopher or philosophe

Voltaire and clandestine manuscripts

Voltaire and the myth of England

Voltaire's masks: theatre and theatricality

Voltaire as story-teller

Candide

Voltaire and history Catherine

Voltaire's correspondence

Voltaire: pamphlets and polemic

Voltaire and the politics of toleration

Voltaire and the Bible

The Voltaire Effect

Guide to further reading

Index

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