Voltaire
1) Candide
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Candide is about a man who believes in the philosophy that: "what happens, happens for the best in the end." that was taught to him by his personal philosopher Dr. Panlosss. Candide goes through many, many trials and everyone he meets has had something terrible happen to them. He searches the world over for his love Cundgonde. And in the end finds that the simplest things in life: love, friends, and health are all that matters.
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"With Candide, Voltaire bumptiously skewered the fashionable misinterpretation of the doctrine of philosophical optimism, unerringly offending kings, scientists, fanaticals, publishers, journalists, and even priests; composed in a mere three days, Candide's capacity to amuse, disgust, and surprise endures today, roughly ninety thousand days later. Theo Cuffe's new translation is invaluable for those English-speaking readers who cannot understand French,...
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Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary is a series of short essays, hortatory and propagandist, over an enormously wide range of subjects. It was deliberately planned as a revolutionary book and was duly denounced on all sides and described as 'a deplorable monument of the extent to which intelligence and erudition can be abused'. The subjects treated include Abraham, Angel and Anthropophages; Baptism, Beauty and Beasts; Fables, Fraud and Fanaticism;...
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Extrait : "Du temps du roi Moabdar il y avait à Babylone un jeune homme nommé Zadig, né avec un beau naturel fortifié par l'éducation. Quoique riche et jeune, il savait modérer ses passions ; il n'affectait rien ; il ne voulait point toujours avoir raison, et savait respecter la faiblesse des hommes."
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5) Micromegas
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Micromegas, an inhabitant of one of the planets that orbits Sirius. His home world is 21.6 million times greater in circumference than the Earth. Micromegas stands 23 miles tall. When he is almost 450 years old, approaching the end of his infancy, Micromegas writes a scientific book examining the insects on his planet, which at 30 m are too small to be detected by ordinary microscopes.
6) Zadig
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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,...
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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,...
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These two classic coming-of-age stories by Voltaire parody the romanticism of his day with the ruthless wit that has made him the undisputed master of social commentary. Candide, which is alternately titled Optimism, is a merciless satire and exposé of the ideas and institutions men live by. In this philosophical fantasy, the naïve Candide comes to witness and to suffer such misfortune that he rejects the philosophy of his tutor, Dr. Pangloss, who...
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Best known as the author of the satirical novel Candide, Voltaire also wrote other highly regarded works of philosophical fiction. With the title tale of this original collection of short stories, the author addresses the social and political problems of his own day in an ancient Babylonian setting. First published in 1747, "Zadig" makes no attempt at historical accuracy. Instead, its thinly veiled references to contemporary issues challenge eighteenth-century...
10) Romans et contes
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Il est possible que les premiers contes de Voltaire aient été le fruit des circonstances, qu'ils aient été des amusements de société (...) L'homme qui est doué d'un grand talent littéraire finit par recourir à la fantaisie et à la fable comme au moyen le plus rapide et peut-être le plus complet de traduire sa pensée.
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This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading. On March 10, 1762, Jean Calas, a Protestant merchant, was publicly executed in Toulouse, France. This punishment had been prescribed by the regional parliament, with hopes that Calas would confess to murdering his adult son in order to prevent his conversion to Catholicism. Steadfastly declaring his innocence, the elderly Huguenot expired after hours of suffering,...
12) Socrates
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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....
13) Pandora
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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.
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After his return to France, Voltaire set out to write "Lettres Philosophiques," or "Letters on England," in which he challenged the old regime of France with brief, epigrammatic essays on the political liberty, religious tolerance and commercial enterprise of the British. The work – which was soon condemned by the French censor and all copies ordered to be seized – praises the English political and trade systems, the peaceful interaction between...
15) Micromégas
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Une édition de référence de Micromégas de Voltaire, spécialement conçue pour la lecture sur les supports numériques.
« Dans une de ces planètes qui tournent autour de l'étoile nommée Sirius, il y avait un jeune homme de beaucoup d'esprit, que j'ai eu l'honneur de connaître dans le dernier voyage qu'il fit sur notre petite fourmilière ; il s'appelait Micromégas, nom qui convient fort à tous les grands. Il avait huit lieues de haut :...
16) Le Taureau Blanc
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Extrait : "La jeune princesse Amaside, fille d'Amasis, roi de Tanis en Égypte, se promenait sur le chemin de Péluse avec les dames de sa suite. Elle était plongée dans une tristesse profonde ; les larmes coulaient de ses beaux yeux. On sait quel état le sujet de sa douleur, et combien elle craignait de déplaire au roi son père par sa douleur même."
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17) L'Ingénu
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Une édition de référence de L'Ingénu de Voltaire, spécialement conçue pour la lecture sur les supports numériques.
« S'il y avait eu une seule vérité cachée dans vos amas d'arguments qu'on ressasse depuis tant de siècles, on l'aurait découverte sans doute ; et l'univers aurait été d'accord au moins sur ce point-là. Si cette vérité était nécessaire comme le soleil l'est à la terre, elle serait brillante comme lui. C'est une absurdité,...
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The causes of our poverty; a poverty which we hide under varnished ceilings, or with the help of our dealers in fashion. We are poor with taste. There are some officers of revenue, there are contractors or jobbers, there are merchants, very rich; their children, their sons-in-law, are also very rich, but the nation in general is unfortunately not so.
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John was not twenty years old when he assisted, as a volunteer, at the attack on Mont-Joui, which was captured, and where the Prince of Hesse lost his life. Our poor Johnny was wounded, taken prisoner, and carried into the town. The following is an account of his adventures from the attack of Mont-Joui till the taking of Barcelona. It is as told by a Catalonian lady, a little too free and too simple. Such stories do not find a way to the hearts of...
20) The White Bull
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The story is based on the Greek tale of Europa and the bull. The white bull is in fact the Greek god Zeus. Set in Ancient Egypt, Princess Amasidia, daughter to King Amasis, is walking along the Pelusium Way. She is deeply saddened as her love has been missing for 7 years and the King has forbidden him. No one in the kingdom is to even speak his name. While walking along the Pelusium Way she encounters many majestic creatures one which is the most...