| Having been reminded of Voltaire from reading recent works on James Boswell and Benjamin Franklin, I found this very admirable book by Ian Davidson to be the remedy to my general ignorance about this great figure from the past. It is not the source to learn about Voltaire's early days or as the noted author of plays. However, from this book one can get a good feel for why Voltaire was, and remains, so important as the symbol of a thinking and witty man, living in an age often marked by severe religious, judicial, and political intolerance. He led a long, full life while often acting generously to improve the troubled lot of real humans. |
In 1753, Voltaire — playwright, poet, philosopher, and one of the most fêted figures in Europe — was forced by Louis XV into exile, where he remained for the last twenty-five years of his life. These years heralded a startling new beginning for this remarkable man. Voltaire carved out a new and vibrant world in his isolation, becoming a successful entrepreneur and writing his masterpiece Candide. In Voltaire in Exile, Ian Davidson re-creates this period in the life of one of the giants of the Enlightenment. By painstakingly translating the rich correspondence between Voltaire and his family, members of the Court at Versailles, and the French intellectual elite, Davidson allows us to discover Voltaire the artist, the campaigner, the aesthete, the lover, the humorist. The result is a wonderfully vivid portrait of this extraordinarily funny, iconoclastic, complex, and, above all, ferociously intelligent individual. |
