Voltaire in Exile
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.50 (930 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0802117910 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 368 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-03-17 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
The result is a wonderfully vivid portrait of this extraordinarily funny, iconoclastic, complex, and, above all, ferociously intelligent individual.. In Voltaire in Exile, Ian Davidson recreates this period in the life of one of the giants of the Enlightenment. In 1753, Voltaire-playwright, poet, philosopher and one of the most feted figures in Europe-was forced by Louis XV and his powerful mistress Madame Pompadour into exile, where he remained for the last twenty-five years of his life. During his years in Geneva, on the outskirts of France, Voltaire carved out a new world in isolation, becoming a successful entrepreneur, writing his masterpiece Candide, and lavishing gifts upon those around him. But it was as a figure cast out by the establishment that Voltaire began to develop his astonishingly modern ideas of human rights and social equality, borne out in his campaigns against a series of miscarriages of justice. 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
IAN DAVIDSON graduated in Classics from Cambridge and joined the Financial Times in 1960. The Trials of Voltaire is his first book. . Reporting on European news, he was the newspaper's Brussels and Paris correspondent for many years and Foreign Affairs columnist on his retirement in 1997
From Booklist A probing and careful biographer, Davidson recognizes that the transforming event of Voltaire's life came when he was banished from France. Bryce ChristensenCopyright © American Library Association. That metamorphosis generated scores of spirited letters initially appealing simply for the lives and liberty--or posthumous reputations--of specific individuals but finally demanding the radical reforms needed to free judicial proceedings from ecclesiastical tyranny. In this chronicle of Voltaire's deep involvement in a series of post-exile campaigns to reverse barbaric court rulings, Davidson limns the great writer's remarkable transformation from a literary celebrity into an international champion of human
Voltaire Exalted 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 w. "I enjoyed reading it" according to Alex. I did like the author's exposition and delivery of what Voltaire did in his time in exile. I think that I would like to have read a few more of his letters during that time during his life, but I leave it up to the author to know what was relevant to the history. I would recommend the book to anyone who has followed Voltaire's writings, and I think next I will go and re. Frederick Mazie said boring. a very detailed and boring account of Voltaire's life. Many letters are not important and could have been left out