Following his traumatic departure from the court of Frederick the Great, Voltaire wrote "L'Orphelin de la Chine", a play later identified as a turning point in French theatre from the point of view of costume and set design. As he settled in Switzerland, he composed the "Epitre de l'auteur, en arrivant dans sa terre pres du lac de Geneve". Yet he remained alert to goings-on in the outside world: in Italy, with the "Examen du Testament politique du cardinal Alberoni", in Portugal, with the "Poeme sur le desastre de Lisbonne", which grapples with the problem of human suffering and foreshadows "Candide", and in Austria and Hungary, with some shorter poems.
- ISBN13 9780729409421
- Publish Date 9 June 2009
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Voltaire Foundation
- Edition Critical edition
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 482
- Language French
- URL http://voltaire.ox.ac.uk/book/writings-1753-1757