Voltaire is known also to have used at least 178 separate pen names during his lifetime. === Early fiction === Voltaire's next play, Artémire, set in ancient Macedonia, opened on 15 February 1720.
Denied a licence to publish, in August 1722 Voltaire headed north to find a publisher outside France.
After Voltaire's recovery from a month-long smallpox infection in November 1723, the first copies were smuggled into Paris and distributed.
While the poem was an instant success, Voltaire's new play, Mariamne, was a failure when it first opened in March 1724.
Heavily reworked, it opened at the Comédie-Française in April 1725 to a much-improved reception.
It was among the entertainments provided at the wedding of Louis XV and Marie Leszczyńska in September 1725. === Great Britain === In early 1726, the aristocratic chevalier de Rohan-Chabot taunted Voltaire about his change of name, and Voltaire retorted that his name would win the esteem of the world, while de Rohan would sully his own.
It was among the entertainments provided at the wedding of Louis XV and Marie Leszczyńska in September 1725. === Great Britain === In early 1726, the aristocratic chevalier de Rohan-Chabot taunted Voltaire about his change of name, and Voltaire retorted that his name would win the esteem of the world, while de Rohan would sully his own.
Seeking redress, Voltaire challenged de Rohan to a duel, but the powerful de Rohan family arranged for Voltaire to be arrested and imprisoned without trial in the Bastille on 17 April 1726.
From December 1727 to June 1728 he lodged at Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, now commemorated by a plaque, to be nearer to his British publisher.
In 1727, he published two essays in English, Upon the Civil Wars of France, Extracted from Curious Manuscripts and Upon Epic Poetry of the European Nations, from Homer Down to Milton. After two and a half years in exile, Voltaire returned to France, and after a few months in Dieppe, the authorities permitted him to return to Paris.
From December 1727 to June 1728 he lodged at Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, now commemorated by a plaque, to be nearer to his British publisher.
He was now indisputably rich. Further success followed in 1732 with his play Zaïre, which when published in 1733 carried a dedication to Fawkener praising English liberty and commerce.
He was now indisputably rich. Further success followed in 1732 with his play Zaïre, which when published in 1733 carried a dedication to Fawkener praising English liberty and commerce.
He published his admiring essays on British government, literature, religion and science in Letters Concerning the English Nation (London, 1733).
The book was publicly burnt and banned, and Voltaire was again forced to flee Paris. === Château de Cirey === In 1733, Voltaire met Émilie du Châtelet (Marquise du Châtelet), a mathematician and married mother of three, who was 12 years his junior and with whom he was to have an affair for 16 years.
In 1734, they were published in Rouen as Lettres philosophiques, causing a huge scandal.
Voltaire strongly believed in Newton's theories; he performed experiments in optics at Cirey, and was one of the promulgators of the famous story of Newton's inspiration from the falling apple, which he had learned from Newton's niece in London and first mentioned in his Letters. In the fall of 1735, Voltaire was visited by Francesco Algarotti, who was preparing a book about Newton in Italian.
Voltaire's critical views on religion led to his belief in separation of church and state and religious freedom, ideas that he had formed after his stay in England. In August 1736, Frederick the Great, then Crown Prince of Prussia and a great admirer of Voltaire, initiated a correspondence with him.
In July 1740, he traveled to the Hague on behalf of Frederick in an attempt to dissuade a dubious publisher, van Duren, from printing without permission Frederick's Anti-Machiavel.
In September Voltaire and Frederick (now King) met for the first time in Moyland Castle near Cleves and in November Voltaire was Frederick's guest in Berlin for two weeks, followed by a meeting in September 1742 at Aix-la-Chapelle.
Voltaire was sent to Frederick's court in 1743 by the French government as an envoy and spy to gauge Frederick's military intentions in the War of the Austrian Succession. Though deeply committed to the Marquise, Voltaire by 1744 found life at her château confining.
Voltaire was sent to Frederick's court in 1743 by the French government as an envoy and spy to gauge Frederick's military intentions in the War of the Austrian Succession. Though deeply committed to the Marquise, Voltaire by 1744 found life at her château confining.
Meanwhile, the Marquise also took a lover, the Marquis de Saint-Lambert. === Prussia === After the death of the Marquise in childbirth in September 1749, Voltaire briefly returned to Paris and in mid-1750 moved to Prussia at the invitation of Frederick the Great.
Life went well for Voltaire at first, and in 1751 he completed Micromégas, a piece of science fiction involving ambassadors from another planet witnessing the follies of humankind.
On 1 January 1752, Voltaire offered to resign as chamberlain and return his insignia of the Order of Merit; at first, Frederick refused until eventually permitting Voltaire to leave in March.
However, the correspondence between them continued, and though they never met in person again, after the Seven Years' War they largely reconciled. === Geneva and Ferney === Voltaire's slow progress toward Paris continued through Mainz, Mannheim, Strasbourg, and Colmar, but in January 1754 Louis XV banned him from Paris, and he turned for Geneva, near which he bought a large estate (Les Délices) in early 1755.
However, the correspondence between them continued, and though they never met in person again, after the Seven Years' War they largely reconciled. === Geneva and Ferney === Voltaire's slow progress toward Paris continued through Mainz, Mannheim, Strasbourg, and Colmar, but in January 1754 Louis XV banned him from Paris, and he turned for Geneva, near which he bought a large estate (Les Délices) in early 1755.
In late 1758, he bought an even larger estate at Ferney, on the French side of the Franco-Swiss border.
The town would adopt his name, calling itself Ferney-Voltaire, and this became its official name in 1878. Early in 1759, Voltaire completed and published Candide, ou l'Optimisme (Candide, or Optimism).
In 1764, he published one of his best-known philosophical works, the Dictionnaire philosophique, a series of articles mainly on Christian history and dogmas, a few of which were originally written in Berlin. From 1762, as an unmatched intellectual celebrity, he began to champion unjustly persecuted individuals, most famously the Huguenot merchant Jean Calas.
Calas had been tortured to death in 1763, supposedly because he had murdered his eldest son for wanting to convert to Catholicism.
This is no matter of faith, but of reason." In a 1763 essay, Voltaire supported the toleration of other religions and ethnicities: "It does not require great art, or magnificently trained eloquence, to prove that Christians should tolerate each other.
In 1764, he published one of his best-known philosophical works, the Dictionnaire philosophique, a series of articles mainly on Christian history and dogmas, a few of which were originally written in Berlin. From 1762, as an unmatched intellectual celebrity, he began to champion unjustly persecuted individuals, most famously the Huguenot merchant Jean Calas.
Voltaire, seeing this as a clear case of religious persecution, managed to overturn the conviction in 1765. Voltaire was initiated into Freemasonry a little over a month before his death.
In a letter to Frederick II, King of Prussia, dated 5 January 1767, he wrote about Christianity: In La bible enfin expliquée, he expressed the following attitude to lay reading of the Bible: It is characteristic of fanatics who read the holy scriptures to tell themselves: God killed, so I must kill; Abraham lied, Jacob deceived, Rachel stole: so I must steal, deceive, lie.
On 4 April 1778, he attended la Loge des Neuf Sœurs in Paris, and became an Entered Apprentice Freemason.
urged Voltaire to become a freemason; and Voltaire agreed, perhaps only to please Franklin." However, Franklin was merely a visitor at the time Voltaire was initiated, the two only met a month before Voltaire's death, and their interactions with each other were brief. === Death and burial === In February 1778, Voltaire returned for the first time in over 25 years to Paris, among other reasons to see the opening of his latest tragedy, Irene.
The five-day journey was too much for the 83-year-old, and he believed he was about to die on 28 February, writing "I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition." However, he recovered, and in March he saw a performance of Irene, where he was treated by the audience as a returning hero. He soon became ill again and died on 30 May 1778.
His heart and brain were embalmed separately. On 11 July 1791, the National Assembly of France, regarding Voltaire as a forerunner of the French Revolution, had his remains brought back to Paris and enshrined in the Panthéon.
The town would adopt his name, calling itself Ferney-Voltaire, and this became its official name in 1878. Early in 1759, Voltaire completed and published Candide, ou l'Optimisme (Candide, or Optimism).
Tallentyre in her 1906 biographical book The Friends of Voltaire.
At first, his attraction to Marie Louise Mignot was clearly sexual, as evidenced by his letters to her (only discovered in 1957).
Theodore Besterman's collected edition of these letters, completed only in 1964, fills 102 volumes.
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