Black Lamb

A Week in Literary History

November 21st, 2002

French writer François Marie Arouet, who will publish under the name Voltaire (Candide, 1759), is born in Paris in 1694.

Voltaire, b. November 21, 1694, d. 1778

While still in his early twenties, François-Marie Arouet was imprisoned in the Bastille for satirizing the French aristocracy, and he went on to write countless satires, plays, philosophical works, histories, and essays under 178 separate pen names. As Voltaire, he was known throughout the world, and his ideas on civil liberties, religion, and trade influenced all the thinkers of his age and after.

Suggested Reading Major works Letters on the English, 1733. Zadig, 1747. Micromégas, 1752. Candide, 1759. Dictionnaire philosophique, 1764. La Princesse de Babylone, 1768.

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