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Works of Voltaire
18 works of Voltaire
French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher (1694-1778)
This ebook presents a collection of 18 works of Voltaire. A dynamic table of contents allows you to jump directly to the work selected.
Table of
- Azolan
- Candide
- From Love to Friendship
- In Camp Before Philippsburg, July 3, 1734
- Letters on England
- Mahomet
- Micromegas
- On the Death of Adrienne Lecouvreur
- The History of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia
- The Origin of Trades
- The Padlock
- Thelema and Macareus
- To a Lady Very Well Known to the Whole Town
- To Her Royal Highness, the Princess of
- To the Queen of Hungary
- Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary
- Voltaire's Romances Complete Work
- Zadig or the Book of Fate
French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher (1694-1778)
This ebook presents a collection of 18 works of Voltaire. A dynamic table of contents allows you to jump directly to the work selected.
Table of
- Azolan
- Candide
- From Love to Friendship
- In Camp Before Philippsburg, July 3, 1734
- Letters on England
- Mahomet
- Micromegas
- On the Death of Adrienne Lecouvreur
- The History of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia
- The Origin of Trades
- The Padlock
- Thelema and Macareus
- To a Lady Very Well Known to the Whole Town
- To Her Royal Highness, the Princess of
- To the Queen of Hungary
- Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary
- Voltaire's Romances Complete Work
- Zadig or the Book of Fate
Kindle Edition
Published April 21, 2013
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About the author
Voltaire
9,420 books4,939 followersComplete works (1880) : https://archive.org/details/oeuvresco...
In 1694, Age of Enlightenment leader Francois-Marie Arouet, known as Voltaire, was born in Paris. Jesuit-educated, he began writing clever verses by the age of 12. He launched a lifelong, successful playwriting career in 1718, interrupted by imprisonment in the Bastille. Upon a second imprisonment, in which Francois adopted the pen name Voltaire, he was released after agreeing to move to London. There he wrote Lettres philosophiques (1733), which galvanized French reform. The book also satirized the religious teachings of Rene Descartes and Blaise Pascal, including Pascal's famed "wager" on God. Voltaire wrote: "The interest I have in believing a thing is not a proof of the existence of that thing." Voltaire's French publisher was sent to the Bastille and Voltaire had to escape from Paris again, as judges sentenced the book to be "torn and burned in the Palace." Voltaire spent a calm 16 years with his deistic mistress, Madame du Chatelet, in Lorraine. He met the 27 year old married mother when he was 39. In his memoirs, he wrote: "I found, in 1733, a young woman who thought as I did, and decided to spend several years in the country, cultivating her mind." He dedicated Traite de metaphysique to her. In it the Deist candidly rejected immortality and questioned belief in God. It was not published until the 1780s. Voltaire continued writing amusing but meaty philosophical plays and histories. After the earthquake that leveled Lisbon in 1755, in which 15,000 people perished and another 15,000 were wounded, Voltaire wrote Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne (Poem on the Lisbon Disaster): "But how conceive a God supremely good/ Who heaps his favours on the sons he loves,/ Yet scatters evil with as large a hand?"
Voltaire purchased a chateau in Geneva, where, among other works, he wrote Candide (1759). To avoid Calvinist persecution, Voltaire moved across the border to Ferney, where the wealthy writer lived for 18 years until his death. Voltaire began to openly challenge Christianity, calling it "the infamous thing." He wrote Frederick the Great: "Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd, and bloody religion that has ever infected the world." Voltaire ended every letter to friends with "Ecrasez l'infame" (crush the infamy — the Christian religion). His pamphlet, The Sermon on the Fifty (1762) went after transubstantiation, miracles, biblical contradictions, the Jewish religion, and the Christian God. Voltaire wrote that a true god "surely cannot have been born of a girl, nor died on the gibbet, nor be eaten in a piece of dough," or inspired "books, filled with contradictions, madness, and horror." He also published excerpts of Testament of the Abbe Meslier, by an atheist priest, in Holland, which advanced the Enlightenment. Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary was published in 1764 without his name. Although the first edition immediately sold out, Geneva officials, followed by Dutch and Parisian, had the books burned. It was published in 1769 as two large volumes. Voltaire campaigned fiercely against civil atrocities in the name of religion, writing pamphlets and commentaries about the barbaric execution of a Huguenot trader, who was first broken at the wheel, then burned at the stake, in 1762. Voltaire's campaign for justice and restitution ended with a posthumous retrial in 1765, during which 40 Parisian judges declared the defendant innocent. Voltaire urgently tried to save the life of Chevalier de la Barre, a 19 year old sentenced to death for blasphemy for failing to remove his hat during a religious procession. In 1766, Chevalier was beheaded after being tortured, then his body was burned, along with a copy of Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary. Voltaire's statue at the Pantheon was melted down during Nazi occupation. D. 1778.
Voltaire (1694-1778), pseudónimo de François-
In 1694, Age of Enlightenment leader Francois-Marie Arouet, known as Voltaire, was born in Paris. Jesuit-educated, he began writing clever verses by the age of 12. He launched a lifelong, successful playwriting career in 1718, interrupted by imprisonment in the Bastille. Upon a second imprisonment, in which Francois adopted the pen name Voltaire, he was released after agreeing to move to London. There he wrote Lettres philosophiques (1733), which galvanized French reform. The book also satirized the religious teachings of Rene Descartes and Blaise Pascal, including Pascal's famed "wager" on God. Voltaire wrote: "The interest I have in believing a thing is not a proof of the existence of that thing." Voltaire's French publisher was sent to the Bastille and Voltaire had to escape from Paris again, as judges sentenced the book to be "torn and burned in the Palace." Voltaire spent a calm 16 years with his deistic mistress, Madame du Chatelet, in Lorraine. He met the 27 year old married mother when he was 39. In his memoirs, he wrote: "I found, in 1733, a young woman who thought as I did, and decided to spend several years in the country, cultivating her mind." He dedicated Traite de metaphysique to her. In it the Deist candidly rejected immortality and questioned belief in God. It was not published until the 1780s. Voltaire continued writing amusing but meaty philosophical plays and histories. After the earthquake that leveled Lisbon in 1755, in which 15,000 people perished and another 15,000 were wounded, Voltaire wrote Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne (Poem on the Lisbon Disaster): "But how conceive a God supremely good/ Who heaps his favours on the sons he loves,/ Yet scatters evil with as large a hand?"
Voltaire purchased a chateau in Geneva, where, among other works, he wrote Candide (1759). To avoid Calvinist persecution, Voltaire moved across the border to Ferney, where the wealthy writer lived for 18 years until his death. Voltaire began to openly challenge Christianity, calling it "the infamous thing." He wrote Frederick the Great: "Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd, and bloody religion that has ever infected the world." Voltaire ended every letter to friends with "Ecrasez l'infame" (crush the infamy — the Christian religion). His pamphlet, The Sermon on the Fifty (1762) went after transubstantiation, miracles, biblical contradictions, the Jewish religion, and the Christian God. Voltaire wrote that a true god "surely cannot have been born of a girl, nor died on the gibbet, nor be eaten in a piece of dough," or inspired "books, filled with contradictions, madness, and horror." He also published excerpts of Testament of the Abbe Meslier, by an atheist priest, in Holland, which advanced the Enlightenment. Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary was published in 1764 without his name. Although the first edition immediately sold out, Geneva officials, followed by Dutch and Parisian, had the books burned. It was published in 1769 as two large volumes. Voltaire campaigned fiercely against civil atrocities in the name of religion, writing pamphlets and commentaries about the barbaric execution of a Huguenot trader, who was first broken at the wheel, then burned at the stake, in 1762. Voltaire's campaign for justice and restitution ended with a posthumous retrial in 1765, during which 40 Parisian judges declared the defendant innocent. Voltaire urgently tried to save the life of Chevalier de la Barre, a 19 year old sentenced to death for blasphemy for failing to remove his hat during a religious procession. In 1766, Chevalier was beheaded after being tortured, then his body was burned, along with a copy of Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary. Voltaire's statue at the Pantheon was melted down during Nazi occupation. D. 1778.
Voltaire (1694-1778), pseudónimo de François-
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 3, 2019
I have read up to his romances and stopped because I needed to start on the other books in my collection.
The biography of Peter the Great was truly amazing and I was both stunned and surprised by the detail and the qualitative knowledge that Voltaire had and the assumptions that he was able to determine from them.
One that stood out above all others was the fact that Russia was exporting elephant ivory from Siberia and rather then dispel this as pure myth, he investigated the information. From his investigations he found out that they were digging up the elephants out of the permafrost. He was then able to deduce that Siberia must have had at some stage a warmer climate that allowed for the migratory habits of elephants.
At no point does he mention the wooly mammoth because he did not have sufficient information or at least poor sources of information.
In his alphabet of philosophy he also attaches climate to being critical to the development of culture and then gives strong examples of how the food in those climates was as important as the social structures that developed from the geography and the climate.
The biography of Peter the Great was truly amazing and I was both stunned and surprised by the detail and the qualitative knowledge that Voltaire had and the assumptions that he was able to determine from them.
One that stood out above all others was the fact that Russia was exporting elephant ivory from Siberia and rather then dispel this as pure myth, he investigated the information. From his investigations he found out that they were digging up the elephants out of the permafrost. He was then able to deduce that Siberia must have had at some stage a warmer climate that allowed for the migratory habits of elephants.
At no point does he mention the wooly mammoth because he did not have sufficient information or at least poor sources of information.
In his alphabet of philosophy he also attaches climate to being critical to the development of culture and then gives strong examples of how the food in those climates was as important as the social structures that developed from the geography and the climate.
August 22, 2011
He's one of the best people to ever put ink to paper. ever.
January 7, 2020
ne znam koi bi se izkefil na tiq noveli... no ne sa chak tolkova loshi ;D
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews