Complete Works of Voltaire
48 primary works • 134 total works
60A
En 1765, pour completer une nouvelle collection mise en oeuvre par le libraire-imprimeur Gabriel Cramer, Voltaire compose de nombreux courts textes sur des matieres qui sont au coeur de ses preoccupations: la politique, la philosophie, la religion, la litterature, l'histoire... Le present volume des OEuvres completes presente tous les textes dont ce troisieme tome des Nouveaux Melanges constitue l'edition princeps. Les rassembler de telle sorte permet de considerer pour la premiere fois les liens qui unissent cet ensemble. Collaborateurs: David Adams, Nicholas Cronk, Jean Dagen, Simon Davies, Diana Guiragossian-Carr, Basil Guy, Jacqueline Hellegouarc'h, Jacqueline Marchand, Haydn Mason, Helder Mendes Baiao, Myrtille Mericam-Bourdet, Michel Mervaud, Francois Moureau, Jean-Alexandre Perras, Gerhardt Stenger, David Williams.
60D
In mid-July 1765, Voltaire produced a twenty-page pamphlet entitled "Questions sur les miracles a M. le professeur Cla*** par un proposant", hoping at best for a reply from the said pastor, little thinking that it would lead to the publication eleven months later, in May 1766, of a 232-page volume entitled "Collection des lettres sur les miracles", composed of various short writings from the period. Voltaire's series of twenty imaginary letters might at first glance be seen as one chronological sequence, as superficial as the fickle and fleeting question they address. But the "Collection" is at the same time an attack on Christianity; an attack on John Turberville Needham, a new anti-philosophical adversary for Voltaire; and a political wrangle which questions the relationship between church authorities and civil government, challenged by the situation in Switzerland at the time.
71C
This volume presents a broad cross-section of Voltaire's continuing interests. "Le Depositaire", Voltaire's last comedy, echoing Moliere, expresses his theatrical ideal. The "Defense de Louis XIV" continues Voltaire's historical work while the "Requete a tous les magistrats" campaigns against religious abuses. The "Traduction du poeme de Jean Plokof" and the "Ode pindarique" support Catherine the Great's war against the Turks. "Le Systeme vraisemblable" supports Newton against d'Holbach while the philosophical fragment "Lettre de M. Hude" argues that all institutions are human constructions. The "Epitre au roi de la Chine" is a polemic on the role of literature and the lamentable state of contemporary France.
78C
Publie deux ans avant la mort de Voltaire, le "Commentaire historique sur les oeuvres de l'auteur de La Henriade" presente l'image qu'il souhaite laisser a la posterite. Cette edition restitue la trentaine de 'lettres veritables' jusqu'ici retranchees et deplacees dans la correspondance par toutes les editions posthumes. Ce volume contient le texte de Voltaire, base sur l'edition princeps de 1776, presente avec variantes et enrichi d'une annotation preparee par une equipe internationale de specialistes. Collaborateurs: David Adams, Alice Breathe, Logan Connors, Marie-Helene Cotoni, Nicholas Cronk, Stephanie Gehanne-Gavoty, Linda Gil, Russell Goulbourne, Basil Guy, John R. Iverson, David McCallam, Myrtille Mericam-Bourdet, Christophe Paillard, John Renwick, Kelsey Rubin-Detlev, Ruggero Sciuto, Katie Scott, Catriona Seth, Gerhardt Stenger, Christopher Todd, Bruno Tribout, Thomas Wynn.
63B
Ce volume contient plusieurs textes importants de Voltaire composes en 1766/1767: la "Relation de la mort du chevalier La Barre", qui fait partie de la lutte voltairienne contre l'infame; les "Lettres a Son Altesse Monseigneur le prince de ***", dans lesquelles Voltaire fait l'apologie de certains ecrivains 'antichretiens', precurseurs de l'esprit philosophique; et "Les Honnetetes litteraires", un 'compendium de traits d'erudition, de droiture et de charite'.
75B
This edition of Voltaire's "Fragments sur l'Inde" is the first ever scholarly critical edition of a neglected historical text from his later years. The work, first published in 1773, sees Voltaire returning to the subject of Indian history, which had interested him since the first drafts of the "Essai sur les moeurs" in the 1740s. Inspired by the prospect of rehabilitating the memory of the executed General Lally, the "Fragments sur l'Inde" are in two parts: the first explores recent colonial enterprises in India and the disastrous Pondicherry campaign, which was to cost Lally his life; while the second is a more general meditation on Indian history, religion and customs. This volume also contains a text attributable to Voltaire, the "Mandement du muphti, suivi d'un Decret du divan".
79A
"La Bible enfin expliquee", une des dernieres publications de Voltaire, promet d'etre la synthese de ses pensees au sujet de la Bible, Ancien et Nouveau Testaments. Elle est a la fois plus et moins que cela: moins que cela car il y recycle des analyses de nombre de ses ecrits anterieurs; plus que cela quand il lit l'Ancien Testament en historien et quand il introduit des nouveautes de critique biblique. Il fait les premiers pas vers une generalisation a tous les livres de la Bible de l'argument de Jean Astruc au sujet de la Genese, que ce livre est un assemblage et une fusion tardive de diverses sources anciennes. Il traite la vie et la predication de Jesus egalement en historien, dans le contexte de la religiosite des sectes juives du premier siecle dont on trouve des traces chez Flavius Josephe et Philon. Dans ses annotations, Bertram Schwarzbach compare le texte de Voltaire avec le tres orthodoxe Commentaire litteral de Dom Augustin Calmet que Voltaire exploitait, et avec les corrosifs traites dits clandestins, y compris les Examens de la Bible rediges par Mme Du Chatelet vers 1743. Voltaire semble ne l'avoir jamais lu mais il avait pu y contribuer indirectement par ses discussions avec sa compagne aux petits-dejeuners et ailleurs. L'editeur tente de situer les commentaires de Voltaire, parfois astucieux mais trop souvent farfelus, dans l'histoire des etudes bibliques depuis les hebraisants du dix-septieme siecle jusqu'aux critiques et historiens des dix-neuvieme et vingtieme siecles.
74A
Ce volume comprend un certain nombre d'écrits divers rédigés par Voltaire en 1772, avec leur appareil critique détaillé. Voltaire, ‘un jeune homme qui est dans sa soixante-dix-neuvième annéé’, compose alors, en particulier, la majeure partie du "Taureau blanc", son dernier conte, aussi le moins connu, où il traite de récits bibliques dans le style d’un conte oriental, faisant usage d’un mode littéraire différent pour présenter une critique de la Bible entreprise deux ans auparavant avec les "Questions sur l'Encyclopédie". Cette édition du "Taureau blanc" a été préparée par René Pomeau qui fut jusqu’à sa fin l’un des présidents d’honneur de l’édition des Œuvres complètes de Voltaire publiée à la Voltaire Foundation. Cette année est aussi celle où Voltaire répond aux attaques sur son œuvre littéraire de la part de deux antagonistes fort différents, J.-M.-B. Clément, dans la "Lettre de M. de Voltaire à un de ses confrères à l’Académie", et Le Roy, dans la "Lettre sur un écrit anonyme". En outre, Voltaire s’implique dans l’affaire Morangiés qui lui fournit un prétexte pour critiquer le processus judiciaire dans son "Essai sur les probabilités en fait de justice" et dans les "Nouvelles probabilités en fait de justice". Il se penche sur le paradoxe de la condition humaine avec le poème "Jean qui pleure et qui rit", et c’est le théâtre qui le préoccupe lorsqu’il compose "La Bégueule", dédiée au duc de Richelieu, écrite avec l’intention d’inspirer un opéra-comique (qui se fit en temps voulu). Toujours bien vivant en 1772, Voltaire commence déjà à se préoccuper de son image après sa mort.
79B
"Un chretien contre six Juifs" and the "Histoire de l'etablissement du christianisme", along with "La Bible enfin expliquee" (OCV, vol.79A), are Voltaire's last great works dealing with religion. In them he aims at the final destruction of l'Infame as represented in characters from the Old Testament, Christian superstition, and religious intolerance. Voltaire had fought regularly against all these in the years after 1761. What distinguishes this latest production is the comprehensive quality of his enterprise and the shared outlook in promoting the ideal of deism.
26B
Ce volume se concentre sur les evenements qui ont marque la seconde moitie du seizieme et le debut du dix-septieme siecle avec les personnages hautement contrastes au plan moral qui ont ete au coeur des guerres de religion et des guerres civiles a travers l'Europe: Philippe II, Elisabeth Ire, Henri IV, Richelieu. Les forces motrices de l'histoire sont mises en rapport avec le caractere, l'ambition et la cruaute. L'amour aussi joue son role et Voltaire ne resiste pas a la tentation de presenter les lettres d'Henri IV a la belle Corisande qu'il decouvrit lors de la revision de son texte en 1761. L'annotation fournit les references detaillees des sources auxquelles Voltaire avait acces, et s'interesse a l'usage qu'il en a fait. L'ouvrage contient un index des noms propres ainsi qu'un index analytique.
28A
This volume brings together a group of works which have never been edited before, and makes an important contribution to the study of Voltaire and music history. Voltaire's role as a courtier during this period was a complex one, as he sought to serve at both the French and Prussian courts; the names of the addressees of the verse written at this time show the numerous contacts made by Voltaire during his travels abroad and particularly during his postings to Berlin and the Hague. On his return to France in 1743, his attention turned to the court at Versailles, and there followed two royal commissions, "La Princesse de Navarre" and "Le Temple de la gloire", both written in collaboration with Rameau with whom Voltaire had a stormy working relationship. Although neither work received the critical acclaim Voltaire had hoped for, the first did secure for him the position of historiographe du roi and is integral to his ongoing experimentation in comic drama.
28B
This volume completes the writings of 1742 to 1745, beginning with a group of short polemical texts from 1742-1743 largely on religious and social matters. From 1744 Voltaire, based principally in Paris or Versailles, followed closely the progress of the War of the Austrian Succession. This volume contains his best known text of 1745, the "Poeme de Fontenoy", written in his capacity as historiographe du roi, together with three diplomatic notes drafted at the request of d'Argenson and a collection of shorter verse relating to the war.
53-55
Voltaire claimed that his monumental "Commentaires sur Corneille" was among his proudest achievements. However, though highly influential within his own lifetime the commentary quickly generated hostility from critics, and even embarrassment, after the eighteenth century. This set of three volumes is the only modern critical edition of Voltaire's longest, most sustained piece of literary criticism, and demonstrates ably that the commentary is not simply concerned with Pierre Corneille, but covers an enormously rich territory outside the immediate area of Corneilian theatre, with its treatment of plays by Shakespeare, Calderon, Racine and Thomas Corneille. Furthermore, Voltaire's notes reflect his thoughts, distilled over half a century, on literature, language, taste, beauty and decadence, at a pivotal stage of his evolution as a critic of French and European culture.
32C
Les annees 1752-1753 du sejour prussien de Voltaire sont marquees par deux querelles a rebondissements et d'une extreme virulence: l'une oppose l'auteur a La Beaumelle (la parution du "Supplement au Siecle de Louis XIV" en marquera une etape), l'autre le met aux prises avec Maupertuis et Frederic II, et Voltaire en rendra compte sur le mode satirique dans son "Histoire du docteur Akakia", dont l'edition critique est presentee dans ce volume.
35-36
Voltaire's monumental "Dictionnaire philosophique" was first published anonymously in Geneva in 1764, and became a lifelong project for Voltaire. The Dictionary form, pioneered by Bayle, was a uniquely Enlightenment phenomenon, but Voltaire's interest in the alphabetical structure is not simply a product of his time, and his dictionary stands apart from its predecessors as much as it follows them. It is overtly populist, intended as an inexpensive pocket edition to 'entertain and instruct' any would-be philosopher. Its non-linear, abridged form allows Voltaire the freedom to express himself. His targets range from sharp criticism of the Church and religious prejudice - particularly in the light of the institutional anti-protestant injustice of the Calas Affair - to his espousal of tolerance, freedom of expression and deism. These two volumes reproduce the "Dictionnaire" in its entirety, from 'Abbe' to 'Virtu', together with a detailed exploration of the book's composition, structure and reception. Contributors: Andrew Brown, Marie-Helene Cotoni, Jacqueline Hellegoarc'h, Ulla Koelving, Christiane Mervaud, Jeanne R. Monty, Jose-Michel Moureaux, Bertram Eugene Schwarzbach, Jeroom Vercruysse, Roland Virolle.
20B
The twinned evils of superstition and fanaticism had been prominent in Voltaire's work since "La Henriade", but it is only with "Le Fanaticisme, ou Mahomet le prophete" that Voltaire translates this theme to the stage, creating an entirely novel adaptation of classical forms to modern political debate. Voltaire's focus is the hypocrisy of religious 'impostors', and, despite the oriental lens, early audiences were under no illusions about the unspoken Christian targets of his polemic. The first authorised editions of the play contain prose paratexts in different voices designed to provoke and challenge his reader. Both the play itself and the literary structure, reproduced with detailed commentary in this edition, offer important insight into Voltaire's evolving public campaign against fanaticism.
20A
1739-1741 were stressful but highly creative years for Voltaire, his output ranging from science to polemic, from politics to poetry. Scientific research remains at the forefront, with Voltaire championing Newton's theories despite the opposition of the scientific establishment. Voltaire was in this period anxious to consolidate his reputation, and his continuing reflections on the nature of a literary career led to the publication of both his personalised "Memoire du sieur de Voltaire" and more general reflections on literary quarrels in "Memoire sur le satire". Public quarrels had become an integral part of the 'Republic of Letters' and Voltaire's disillusionment is clear in "Lettres sur les inconvenients attaches a la litterature". His verse ranges from crude satire to some of his most touching lyric poetry in the "Stances a Madame Du Chatelet". Altogether, this collection brings together the complex and contrasting works of a complex and flexible writer.
44B
Composees a la demande de Louise-Dorothee de Saxe-Meiningen, admiratrice des ecrits historiques de Voltaire qui souhaitait lire une histoire du Saint Empire Romain Germanique issue de sa plume, les Annales de l'Empire se presentent comme le pendant de l'Abrege chronologique de l'histoire de France de Henault, ainsi que des Memoires pour servir a l'histoire de la maison de Brandebourg de Frederic II, que Voltaire avait lus a Potsdam en 1751. Flatte, l'historien se mit a la tache, heureux de pouvoir opposer une liste d'empereurs aux electeurs de Frederic. Ainsi propose-t-il l'histoire de l'Empire depuis Charlemagne jusqu'a Charles VI, dont la mort en 1740 donna lieu a la guerre de Succession d'Autriche, conflit dont la memoire allemande conservait encore le plus vif souvenir. L'ouvrage est compose a une allure rapide, Voltaire puisant dans les bibliotheques privees des amis qui le recoivent a tour de role au cours de ses peregrinations en 1753. Que le texte contienne des erreurs n'est guere surprenant, mais il ne merite pas de tomber dans l'oubli: comme toujours, le jugement personnel de Voltaire, historien et philosophe, apporte une perspective nouvelle aux evenements et aux personnages qui forment un corps qu'il declare 'ni saint, ni empire, ni romain'.
20C
Not just a science fiction tale about a planet-hopping giant from outer space visiting our world, but also a commentary on society and the scientific knowledge at the time of its composition, "Micromegas" reflects on man's place in the universe, between two infinities. This has remained one of Voltaire's best-loved tales. This volume also features "La Prude", a comedy inspired by Wycherley's "Plain Dealer", the "Conseils a M. Racine sur son poeme de La Religion", where Voltaire criticises the work of Louis Racine, son of the illustrious playwright, as well as "Le Preservatif ou critique des 'Observations sur les ecrits modernes'", in which the author targets his personal enemy the abbe Desfontaines and his literary journal.
31B
The year 1749 was to prove a sombre one for Voltaire. His relationships with Mme Du Chatelet and Mme Denis were both in highly emotional and uncertain stages, culminating in Voltaire's utter devastation at the death of Mme Du Chatelet in September, and his ensuing need to lay the foundations of a new existence, initially in Paris and with his oldest friends. It is against this backdrop that one must envisage his literary activities in 1749. This year saw the highly successful comedy "Nanine" published, together with propaganda works arguing in favour of increasing the commodity and beauty of Paris, the capital from which he spent so much of his life an exile. At a time of crisis for Voltaire both in his personal relations and at court, he also wrote a the poem 'La vie de Paris et de Versailles' which acts as a love poem to Mme Denis as much as a satire on Parisian society.