Impasse Voltaire

François-Marie Arouet said Voltaire is from a bourgeois background, his father was a notary. He made brilliant studies at the jésuites of Louis-Le-Grand. Voltaire pursues his literary career with the aim of finding truth and making it known in order to transform society. At the castle of Cirey, in Champagne, he wrote tragedies (Zaïre, La mort de César) and, with less success, comedies (Nanine). Official poèmes allow him to enter à the Académie Française and à the Court as historiographer of the king in 1746. However Zadig forces him to go into exile in Potsdam at the invitation of Frédéric II of Prussia, and then to Genève. In 1759, Voltaire published Candide, one of his most famous and accomplished novels. Outraged by the intolerance, wars and injustices that plague mankind, he denounces providentialist thinking and idle mysticism. With his biting pamphlets, Voltaire is a brilliant political activist. He fights tirelessly for freedom, justice and the triumph of reason. In 1778, he finally returned to Paris, the Académie and the Comédie Française, but overwhelmed by his triumph, he died there shortly after.

Did you know...
A universal spirit who marked the siècle of the Enlightenment, a staunch defender of individual liberty and tolerance, Voltaire had great success with the liberal bourgeoisie. He leaves a considerable body of work. Because of censorship, most of his writings were banned. They were published anonymously, printed abroad and smuggled into France.

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