Voltaire Almighty: A Life in Pursuit of Freedom
by Roger Pearson
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With its tales ofnbsp; illegitimacy, prison, stardom, exile, love affairs, and tireless battles against his critics, priests and king, Roger Pearson's Voltaire Almighty brings the father of Enlightenment to vivid life. nbsp; Voltaire Almighty provides a lively look at the life and thought of one of the major forces behind European Enlightenment. A rebel from start to finish (1694-1778), Voltaire was an ailing and unwanted bastard child who refused to die; and when he did consent to expire show more some eighty-four years later, he secured a Christian burial despite a bishops ban. nbsp; During much of his life Voltaire was the toast of society for his plays and verse, but his barbed wit and commitment to human reason got him into trouble. Jailed twice and eventually banished by the king, he was an outspoken critic of religious intolerance and persecution. His personal life was as colorful as his intellectual life. Of independent means and mind, Voltaire never married, but he had long-term affairs with two women: Emilie, who died after giving birth to the child of another lover, and his niece, Marie-Louise, with whom he spent the last twenty-five years of his life. The consummate outsider; a dissenter who craved acceptance while flamboyantly disdaining it; author of countless stories, poems, books, plays, treatises, and tracts as well as some twenty thousand letters to his friends: Voltaire lived a long, active life that makes for engaging and entertaining reading. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
An eminently readable biography of Voltaire. Informed, authoritative, humorous, Pearson manages to convey exactly how Voltaire came to be the poster-child of the enlightenment movement and ground-breaker for ideas that would ultimately lead to the French revolution.
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Author Information
9+ Works 239 Members
Roger Pearson is Professor of French at the University of Oxford and Fellow and Tutor in French at the Queen's College, Oxford. He is a Fellow of the British Academy.
Awards and Honors
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 2005
- People/Characters
- Voltaire "François-Marie Arouet", 1694-1778; Denis Diderot
- Dedication
- For Vivienne
- First words
- Imagine yourself in Paris, on the Left Bank of the Seine.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)For every age needs its relics and its gods.
Classifications
- Genres
- Biography & Memoir, Literature Studies and Criticism
- DDC/MDS
- 848.509 — Literature & rhetoric French Literature French miscellaneous writings 18th century 1715–89
- LCC
- PQ2099 .P43 — Language and Literature French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese literatures French literature Modern literature 18th century
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 199
- Popularity
- 163,971
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.69)
- Languages
- Dutch, English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 3
