Author(s): Ian Davidson

Biography & Memoir

In 1753, Voltaire - playwright, poet, philosopher, and one of the most feted figures in Europe - was forced into exile by Louis XV, where he would remain for the last twenty-five years of his life. These years heralded a startling new beginning during which Voltaire became a successful entrepreneur and wrote his masterpiece Candide. Cast out by the establishment, Voltaire also developed his astonishingly modern ideas of human rights, borne out in his campaigns against a series of miscarriages of justice. Ian Davidson has drawn on the rich correspondence between Voltaire and his family, members of the Court at Versailles and the French intellectual elite, to paint a brilliant portrait of the person declared by Diderot to the 'the unique man of the century'. First published 2004