Volume 62

This book documents what newspapers, literary journals and private
individuals in Holland wrote about Voltaire between 1746 and 1778. Like
elsewhere in Europe, he was admired for his literary genius but detested
by orthodox Christians for his disrespect of revealed religion. In this
book these views are represented by Gerard Roos, the translator of Zadig,
Socrate and L'Homme aux 40 ecus, and the reverend
Petrus Hofstede. For Jean Rousset de Missy, the editor of Voltariana
and Les Mensonges imprimes, Voltaire was also a selfish cheat
who did not keep his promises to publishers. In L'Epilogueur moderne
Rousset frequently attacked him in connection with Abrege de l'histoire
universelle by Jean Neaulme. Among the documents discovered while
working on this book are the letter Voltaire wrote to the grand pensionary
of Holland after the public burning of his Dictionnaire philosophique,
and a second review of Oeuvres de Maupertuis. The book concludes
with a bibliography of Voltaire translations into Dutch, many of them
published in literary journals.