The Cambridge Companion to Voltaire

An accessible overview of the life, times and work of the eighteenth-century philosopher and writer.

As a leading thinker of the European Enlightenment, Voltaire is a central figure in France's collective cultural memory. This Companion is the most comprehensive book on Voltaire available in English, comprising a series of original essays with a chronology and a guide to sources.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 œuvre. 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.