Voltaire
1) Candide
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"If this is the best of possible worlds, what then are the others?" - CANDIDE
Candide is a French satire first published in 1759 by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment. It is the absurdly melodramatic story of a young man, Candide, living a sheltered life who clings desperately to "the best of all possible worlds," one which is abruptly interrupted by a series of painfully disillusioning events that set him off on a wide-ranging journey....
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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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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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4) 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.
5) 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....
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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,...
7) 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,...
8) 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.
9) 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 :...
10) 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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11) 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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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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Deux essais philosophiques fondateurs et essentiels pour comprendre notre société actuelle.
Le Traité sur la tolérance est une œuvre polémique de Voltaire publiée en 1763. Destinée à stigmatiser le fanatisme religieux, c'est un texte majeur de la philosophie des Lumières. Au départ, un fait divers de 1762 : Jean Calas est protestant, comme toute sa famille sauf un de ses fils. Le fils est retrouvé pendu. La foule gronde. Calas est accusé...
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Un des textes de Voltaire qui a fait le plus scandale.
POUR UN PUBLIC AVERTI. La Pucelle d'Orléans est un poème héroï-comique en vingt-et-un chants, qui dépeint en vers satiriques la vie de Jeanne d'Arc. L'œuvre iconoclaste a scandalisé la cour de France, et son statut d'écrit licencieux censuré a encouragé la circulation de nombreuses versions clandestines et non reconnues à travers l'Europe.
Des poèmes érotiques voltairiens longtemps...
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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. "The Chinese tragedy, which they call 'The Orphan,' was taken out of an immense collection of the theatrical performances of that nation, which has cultivated this art for about three thousand years before it was invented by the Greeks, the art of making living...
18) Orestes
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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. Orestes was produced in 1750, an experiment which intensely interested the literary world and the public. In his Dedicatory Letters to the Duchess of Maine, Voltaire has the following passage on the Greek drama: "We should not, I acknowledge, endeavor to imitate...
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The adventure of the youthful Rustan is generally known throughout the whole province of Candahar. He was the only son of a Mirza of that country. The title of Mirza there is much the same as that of Marquis among us, or that of Baron among the Germans. The mirza, his father, had a handsome fortune. Young Rustan was to be married to a mirzasse, or young lady of his own rank. The two families earnestly desired their union. Rustan was to become the...
20) The Scotch Woman
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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. "I don't belong to the house, sir; but I spend most of my time in the coffee-room; write news, politics, and so forth, and am always ready to do an honest gentleman service. If you have any friend you want to have praised, or any enemy to be abused; any author...