Voltaire

Attacked the arbitrary power of the church and judicial injustice in satirical writings.

Life

The Bastille and Britain

Voltaire, born François-Marie Arouet into the family of a Paris notary, was twice imprisoned in the Bastille for satirical verse and later spent three years in exile in England, where he was deeply influenced by its relatively free climate of expression and by Newtonian mechanics and Lockean philosophy, which he vigorously promoted after returning home.

Polemics and rehabilitation

His writings spanned history, drama, philosophy and satirical fiction. In 1759 he published Candide, mocking the optimistic philosophy that "this is the best of all possible worlds." In his later years he settled at Ferney on the Franco-Swiss border, campaigned actively to clear the names of the wrongly condemned such as Calas, and attacked religious fanaticism and torture in letters and pamphlets.

Contradictions of tolerance

He is often portrayed as the pure embodiment of tolerance, but he also left many prejudiced remarks about Jews and other groups, not fully consistent with the universal tolerance he advocated. In his later years he was quite wealthy, becoming a rich man of letters through investments and royalties, which also stands in some tension with his image as a critic of the privileged classes; historians still debate these contradictions.

Legacy

Voltaire was one of the most influential figures of the French Enlightenment. With his incisive pen he attacked religious fanaticism, judicial arbitrariness and superstition, and popularized Newtonian science and English ideas of liberty, contributing enormously to the spread of the ideals of religious tolerance and freedom of speech and profoundly influencing the French Revolution. His own prejudices against Jews and other groups, and his close ties with the powerful, have also made later assessments of him more complex.

Major works & achievements

• Letters on the English (Philosophical Letters)
• Candide
• The Age of Louis XIV
• Treatise on Tolerance
• Campaigned to clear the name of Jean Calas

Did you know? "Voltaire" was a pen name; in 1791 his remains were moved into the Panthéon in Paris.

Key dates

• 1717Imprisoned in the Bastille for satirical verse
• 1726Three years in Exile in England
• 1734Published Letters on the English (Philosophical Letters), which was banned
• 1750Invited to the court of Frederick II of Prussia
• 1759Published Candide
• 1762Campaigned to have Calas Rehabilitated
• 1778Returned to Paris; died