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Voltaire was a French Enlightenment writer known for his wit and criticism of institutions, including the aristocracy and Catholic Church. He was imprisoned twice and spent time in exile, but eventually became a royal historian and member of the French Academy. He settled in Ferney and developed his own philosophies, including deism. His writings influenced the French Revolution and he is still revered as a great thinker.
Voltaire is the pseudonym of François-Marie Arouet, a French writer of the Enlightenment. He was a prolific writer and philosopher, writing essays, plays, poems, novels and non-fiction works. He was also known for his wit and outspoken political views. Voltaire criticized most of the institutions of his day, including the aristocracy and the Catholic Church, and fought for reforms such as freedom of religion and the right to a fair trial.
Born in Paris on November 21, 1694, he was the youngest of five children of a notary. Voltaire’s mother came from a noble family. He attended Lycée Louis-le-Grand, a Jesuit school, for seven years starting at the age of ten. Although his father wanted him to pursue a legal career, Voltaire was more interested in literature. He worked briefly for a lawyer in Paris, but soon became known for his witty poems and aphorisms.
Voltaire began frequenting the aristocratic circles of Paris in his early twenties. When the Duc d’Orléans became the butt of his satire, Voltaire was imprisoned in the Bastille for eleven months. While there, he wrote his first play, Oedipus, which was successfully staged in 1718. Around this time, he also began using the pseudonym he.
The writer was arrested a second time in 1726, again after having insulted a nobleman. He spent two weeks in the Bastille but was released on the condition that he leave France. He spent nearly three years in exile in London, where he was impressed by the English Constitution and by the writings of the political philosopher John Locke and the scientist Sir Isaac Newton.
Voltaire returned to Paris in 1728. Inspired by the knowledge he acquired abroad, he soon developed his own political philosophy. He was in favor of extending civil rights, even though he didn’t trust most people to make responsible decisions. Therefore, Voltaire believed that an enlightened absolute ruler was the ideal form of government. In his 1734 work, English or Philosophical Letters, the writer outlined his political beliefs, heavily criticizing France’s leading institutions in the process. Once again, he faced exile, this time to the Duchy of Lorraine.
His fortunes began to change in 1735. Voltaire became friends with Madame du Pompadour, the mistress of King Louis XV, and was a frequent visitor to Versailles. He was appointed royal historian of France and elected to the French Academy. In the 1750s he spent time at the court of another “enlightened monarch”, Frederick II of Prussia. The writer was no longer welcome in France two years later when he was ready to leave Berlin, so he traveled throughout Europe and continued to write.
Voltaire settled in the town of Ferney, France in 1758. During the 20 years he lived there, he wrote many of his most famous and important works, including Candide in 1758. He developed his own philosophies, including that of deism, belief in God based on rational observation of the natural world rather than blind faith. The writer’s Dictionnaire Philosophique (1764), dealing with his deist beliefs, was extremely controversial for its rejection of organized religion.
When Voltaire returned to Paris shortly before his death on May 30, 1778, he was greeted as a national hero. His writings were influential in the French Revolution of the following year, which rejected both aristocracy and clergy and fought to increase personal liberties. The writer is still revered as one of the greatest French and world thinkers. Ferney was renamed Ferney-Voltaire and the writer’s home became a museum. Voltaire was buried in the Pantheon, although his brain is in the Bibliothèque National in Paris.
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