Books by Francois Voltaire

When his love for the Baron's daughter is discovered, Candide is cast out to make his own way in the world. And so he and his companions begin a breathless tour of Europe, South America and Asia, as an outrageous series of disasters befall them earthquakes, syphilis, a brush with the Inquisition, and murder, testing the young hero's optimism.

'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life' - that's the essence of Voltaire's 'Candide'. For, like the ever-upbeat character in 'Monty Python's Life of Brian', the eponymous Candide is taught that everything is for the best. The young Frenchman must not grumble, grimace or lose heart.However, when he is cast out for falling for the daughter of a Baron, his sunny disposition is sorely tested by global disasters including earthquakes, the Inquisition and syphilis.'Candide' was initially banned because of blasphemy and political sedition. But the satire has since become one of the great novels in European history.Voltaire is the pen name of the French writer Francois-Marie Arouet (1694-1778). He was a writer and philosopher whose radical anti-Catholic and pro-freedom work helped inspire the French Revolution a decade after his death. He wrote 20,000-plus letters and 2,000 books and pamphlets and famously spent two years in exile in England for his seditious views. Among his many works, Voltaire was known for 'Lettres Philosophique' and 'Candide'.

Also known as the Lettres anglaises ou philosophiques, Voltaire's response to his exile in England offered the French public of 1734 a panoramic view of British culture. Perceiving them as a veiled attack against the ancien regime, however, the French government ordered the letters burned and Voltaire persecuted.

Something between a tale and a polemic, these "e;fables of reason"e; are feats of narrative compression and contain much of Voltaire's best and funniest writing. From ribald tales of adultery to conversations between cosmic travellers, the stories in this collection pose moral, philosophical and social questions. Reader and protagonist alike find their assumptions challenged as Voltaire mingles rationality and fantasy.

Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary, first published in 1764, is a series of short, radical essays - alphabetically arranged - that form a brilliant and bitter analysis of the social and religious conventions that then dominated eighteenth-century French thought. One of the masterpieces of the Enlightenment, this enormously influential work of sardonic wit - more a collection of essays arranged alphabetically, than a conventional dictionary - considers such diverse subjects as Abraham and Atheism, Faith and Freedom of Thought, Miracles and Moses. Repeatedly condemned by civil and religious authorities, Voltaire's work argues passionately for the cause of reason and justice, and criticizes Christian theology and contemporary attitudes towards war and society - and claims, as he regards the world around him: 'common sense is not so common'.

Det var Voltaire der stod bag de berømte ord: Jeg er uenig i hvad De siger, men jeg vil forsvare til døden Deres ret til at sige det.Mange af hans bøger blev forbudt fordi de kom for tæt på sandheden (sådan er det jo, desværre). Zadig er en filosofisk men meget underholdende historie om en ung mand, der må sande, at selvom han har alle forudsætninger for at blive lykkelig, så vil det ikke lykkes.

Det var Voltaire der stod bag de berømte ord: Jeg er uenig i hvad De siger, men jeg vil forsvare til døden Deres ret til at sige det.Blandt Voltaires mest kendte værker er "Candide" (1759). En satirisk fortælling, der gør op med den filosofiske optimisme, der grundlæggende anfører, at alt er godt, fordi Gud er god og almægtig. En af hovedpersonerne i værket, den dogmatiske Dr. Pangloss, er en parodieret fremstilling af den tyske filosof Leibniz, som Voltaire foragtedeDen naive og godtroende Candide (=den troskyldige) er blevet oplært af filosoffen Pangloss om hvorledes verden er det bedste sted af alle. Candide får sin optimistiske livsholdning revideret gennem forfærdelige hændelser: mord, inkvisition, kannibalisme, syfilis og jordskælv.Det religiøse aspekt i romanen udsættes for stærk ironi og sarkasme. Gennem romanen udvikler Candide sig fra et naivt ungt væsen, for til sidst at have forstået hele verdens sammenhæng. Han lærer at verden er menneskeskabt, og det er derfor mennesket selv som med sin fornuft skal løse verdens problemer. Dette resulterer også i at Candide bortkaster sin optimistiske og barnlige filosofi om verden som et utopia.Må og skal læses af alle.