Voltaire was born in Paris in a middle-class family. He was educated by the Jesuits at the Collège Louis-le-Grand (1704-11). From 1711 to 1713 he studied law and worked then as secretary to the French ambassador in Holland before devoting himself entirely to writing. However, his essays did not gain the approval of authorities, but caused him numerous imprisonments and exiles.

In 1716 Voltaire was arrested and exiled from Paris for five months. From 1717 to 1718 he was imprisoned in the Bastille for lampoons of the Regency. During this time he wrote the tragedy ŒDIPE, and started to use the name Voltaire. The play brought him fame but also more enemies at court.

At his 1726 stay at the Bastille Voltaire was visited by a flow of admirers. Between 1726 and 1729 he lived in exile in England, where he wrote is Eglish his first essays, ESSAY UPON EPIC POETRY and ESSAY UPON THE CIVIL WARS IN FRANCE, which were published in 1727. After return to France Voltaire wrote plays, poetry, historical and scientific treatises and became royal historiographer.

Voltare lived at the Château de Cirey with madame du Châtelet in 1734-36 and 1737-40. Between the years he took a refuge in Holland (1736-37). In 1740 he was ambassador-spy in Prussia, then in Brussels (1742-43) and in 1748 he was at the court of King Stanislas in Lunéville. From 1745 to 1750 he was historiographer to Louis XV and in 1746 he was elected to the French Academy.

In 1750 Voltaire moved to Berlin, where he was invited by Fredrick the Great. He lived in then Colmar (1753-54), Geneva (1754-55) and Les Délices near Geneve (1755-59).

In 1755 Voltaire settled in Switzerland, where he lived the rest of his life, apart from trips to France. In his late years Voltaire produced several anti-religious writing and led campaign to open up a trial, in which hugenot mechnant Jean Calas was found guilty of murdering his eldest son and executed. The parliament at Paris declared afterwards in 1765 Calas and all his family innocent. - (SEE ALSO writer Emile Zola who defended falsely accused Alfred Dreyfuss in his open letter J'accuse in 1898.)

Voltaire died in Paris on May 30, 1778. Among his best-known works is the satirical short story CANDIDE (1759), where young and innocent Candide suffers great misfortunes, but finally finds the pleasures of cultivating one's garden and rejects the philosophy of his tutor, Doctor Pangloss, who claims that "all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds". SEE ALSO: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

As an essayist Voltaire defended freedom of thoughts and religious tolerance. His DICTIONNAIRE PHILOSPHIQUE (1764) was condemned in Paris, Geneva and Amsterdam, and for safety reasons Voltaire denied his authorship. The book was burned with the young Chevalier de la Barre, who had neglegted to take of his hat while passing a bridge where a sacred statue was exposed.

Later Voltaite introduced his Dictionaryas a dialogical book: its short, polemical articles were 'more useful' when 'the readers produce the other half'. In Essay on the Manner and Spirit of Nations Voltaire presented the first modern comparative history of civilizations, including Asia. An innovative aspect of Voltaire's history is that the chivalric hero is rejected for the 'good administrator', who protects liberties in order for society to prosper.

For further reading: Voltaire by Gustave Lanson (1966); Voltaire by Theodore Besterman (1969); The Intellectual Development of Voltaire by Ira O. Wade (1969); Voltaire by Peyton Richter (1980); Voltaire en sons temps, ed. by René Pomeau (1985-94, 5 vols.)

SEE ALSO: Cyrano de Bergerac

Selected works:

• ŒDIPE, 1718
• LA HENRIADE, 1728
• HISTOIRE DE CHARLES XII, 1731
• ZAÏRE, 1732
• LETTRES PHILOSOPHIQUES SUR LES ANGLAIS, 1734 (Voltaire's satirical attack among others on Descates' theory of vortices)
• ESSAI SUR LA NATURE DU FEU, 1739
• MÉROPE, 1743
• ZADIG, 1747 - Sallimus
• LE SIÈCLE DE LOUIS XIV, 1751
• MICROMÉGAS, 1752 (see also Giacomo Casanova's novel Icosameron
)
• LA PUCELLE, 1755
• ESSAI SUR L'HISTOIRE GÉNERALE ET SUR LES MOEURS ET L'ESPIRIT DES NATIONS 1756, 1761-63 - Essay on the Manner and Spirit of Nations, and on the Principal Occurences in History
• CANDIDE, 1759 - Candide
• TRAITÉ SUR LA TOLÉRANCE, 1763 - Treatise on Toleration
• DICTIONNAIRE PHILOSOPHIQUE, 1764 - Philosophical Dictionary
• L'INGENU, 1767 - Luonnonlapsi
• LA PRINCESSE DE BABYLONE, 1768
• ŒUVRES COMPLÈTES, (52 vol.), 1877-85
• Voltaire and the Enlightenment, 1931
• Selections, 1969
• Voltaire on Religion, 1974
• ŒUVRES COMPLÈTES, 1983-94 (IN PROGRESS, 84 vols. projected)
• Selections, 1989
• A Treatise on Toleration and Other Essays, 1994
• Political Writings, 1994
• DICTIONNAIRRE DE LA PENSÉE DE VOLTAIRE PAR LUI-MÊME, 1994