Voltaire Books

I'd never heard of Vivant Denon, the chief protagonist of this extraordinary novel - but I came to realise that if I'd been French, and into the Arts, such an admission would have shown deplorable ignorance, if only because his name is carved above one of the wings of the Louvre in recognition of his life's work - collecting (often by theft) some of the great works of art there. Lee Langley has taken Denon's life and times and woven from the known facts, plus much that she's invented, a fascinating tapestry which follows her unlikely hero through a lifetime of scandal, flight, dedication and adventure. Among the 'real' people we meet are Voltaire, Robespierre, Marie Antoinette, Catherine the Great, and, most significant of all because he leads Denon on his most outlandish excursion when he follows him to Egypt - Napoleon. As always with this author, the writing is sublime, the descriptions powerful, and, if we can't whole-heartedly admire the hero, there is always his long-suffering valet Baptiste (a most happy invention) and a mysterious Dark Lady, whose exotic and harrowing origins, if not her later life, are based on truth. Anyone interested in l8th Century Europe with its revolutions, conquests and royal intrigues will find this book entirely captivating. L.R.B.

I think this book should be read by everyone who likes Philosophy. And this book also will help people who haven't main concepts about Philosophy. It's very easy to read because everything is a novel whose story elapses in a lot of places in Europe and in South America. I really love this book!

Excelente. Increiblemente actual, un espejo de los absurdos de la sociedad. Una radiografía del poder y la mezquindad de algunos hombres que sucumben ante él y también, un tributo al amor y a los hombres buenos. Muy entretenido y a veces, conmovedor.

This is the French text edition of the book, "Portrait of Jennie", first published in 1940, which was adapted to film in 1948 and starred Joseph Cotton and Jennifer Jones. I was sufficiently intrigued by the film so as to want to read the book upon which the film was based but was surprised to discover, however, that the book is more of a novella, as it runs a scant one hundred and twenty-five pages in length. While not lengthy, it is, nonetheless, a haunting story, although it differs is some respects from the film.

The book tells the story of a young, struggling artist in New York named Eben Adams, who is really little more than a hack. One winter night in 1938, a down and out Eben is in Central Park, having been unsuccessful in selling his paintings. There, he encounters a very young girl named Jennie Appleton, who is mysteriously in the park by herself, playing hopscotch. Thus, begins Eben's acquaintance with Jennie.

Eben sketches a picture of Jennie, which to his surprise, he is able to sell. Periodically, Jennie begins appearing in his life at odd times, always swathed in mystery as to her origins and always appearing somehow older than expected each time he sees her. Eben continues to sketch her, finding that he can sell those sketches with ease. Inspired by his muse, he paints her portrait, a masterpiece that eventually lands in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

He is puzzled, nonetheless, by the anomaly and mystery that surrounds Jennie, who has an air of being from another time. Yet, an unusual bond is developing between them, one that not even the vagaries of time can break. It is also one that becomes increasingly romantic over time, as Jennie quickly grows into womanhood. The fates, however, Eben finds, can be cruel.

Those who enjoy romantic stories with supernatural portents will very much enjoy this haunting tale of two star crossed individuals.

This book is a very interesting read. Some chapters (like the first one on Angles) as interesting as they are, just seem to be a historical documentation, if i wanted a history lesson i would have asked. But these chapters are few, the rest prove insightful on things like animals and ideas about humans like prejudice etc. Interesting to read, and personally easier to read than some other penguin great ideas books like 'On the nature of war'

Fritz Stern has compiled a wide-ranging collection of original source materials written by historians, ancient and modern, that illuminate the nature of history as a discipline and a process. Beginning with Voltaire and Barthold Niebuhr and progressing through Macaulay, Jaures, Turner, Trevelyan, Beard, Barzun, and ending with C. Vann Woodward, Stern focuses on different roles history has assumed over a period of thousands of years as well as the various genres and subtopics in which history has made itself a home. These topics include cultural history, economic history, literature, positivism, materialism, scientific history, relativism and others. Stern opens each chapter and discussion of a new historian with insightful preliminary and background information that helps to set the historian in a better context than if it were not to appear. Other than this, his presence is undetectable, which speaks to his ability as a historian himself to remain detached from his work.

Any university level historiography course needs this work either as a main text or as a supplementary text given its survey-like nature. Stern opens each chapter and discussion of a new historian with insightful preliminary and background information that helps to set the historian in a better context than if it were not to appear. Each featured historian presents or engages a new variety of history, as the title enunciates, and provides further evidence of the depth and breadth of history as a scholarly subject as well as a process spread out over time.

The intense and quite complex nature of the selections make this book a perfect fit for an upper level university or graduate level historiography course. Furthermore, any reader who wishes to supplement any knowledge of history would be well served by this work. High school students intending to pursue history as a major might also read this as a prelude to what lies ahead.

While this book states the same points over and over again, and is a long time in getting to the point, the overall content is excellent. This takes a very balanced view of Voltaire's attack on optimism, and will tell you everything you need to know about Candide. The only MAJOR problem for me was that all the quotes from Voltaire and his contemporaries were in French! Yikes!

This is one of the better biographies of Voltaire, and would be useful to those who have never studied the man and those who are quite familar with him. In addition to providing a fairly thorough outline of the events of Voltaire's life (it would require a massive, multivolume work for a complete picture of the man), this book also properly puts Voltaire in the context of the 18th Century Enlightenment, of which he was the brightest light.
While highly-researched and scholarly, it is also very readable and does not descend into the pedantic writing style so many academics are guilty of. Both the professional scholar and the interested layperson would find this work valuable.

Having been reminded of Voltaire from reading recent works on James Boswell and Benjamin Franklin, I found this very admirable book by Ian Davidson to be the remedy to my general ignorance about this great figure from the past. It is not the source to learn about Voltaire's early days or as the noted author of plays. However, from this book one can get a good feel for why Voltaire was, and remains, so important as the symbol of a thinking and witty man, living in an age often marked by severe religious, judicial, and political intolerance. He led a long, full life while often acting generously to improve the troubled lot of real humans.

Before this 1994 Oxford University Press Edition, ENGLISH-language Readers of Voltaire's famous Book had to make do with Translations from the FRENCH 'Lettres Philosophiques'. Voltaire, however, began writing the Book during his two and a half year stay in ENGLAND, and wrote over half the Letters in ENGLISH. This first critical Edition of the 'Letters' in ENGLISH (the remaining eight Letters are presented in contemporary Translation) are immediately more fresh, more witty, more pointed, more fluid, more Voltairean, than the pallid Translations of other Editions on offer, and, with their characteristic 18th century Spelling (e.g. today's words ending in 'c' ending in 'k', like 'Publick') and Orthography (Nouns capitalised, proper Nouns italicised), give one the pleasurable Feeling of reading a Contemporary of Swift's or Pope's.

Anyone hoping for a Bill Bryson-like Travelogue into the Manners and distinctive Details of the ENGLISH, or a FRENCH 'Gulliver's Travels', will be disappointed. The 'Letters' are a Travelogue of Enlightenment Ideas, and can be divided into three Sections - Religion (Voltaire celebrating the Tolerance of many Religions in ENGLAND compared to the Catholic Tyranny in FRANCE); Philosophy/Science (offering a breathless Digest of exciting new Theories and Discoveries by Locke and Newton), and Literature (decrying the barbarous Irregularities of English theatre compared to the coolly classical French, but praising the occasional poetic Vividness and greater dramatic Force of Shakespeare - how nice of him!). Voltaire often distorts political Conditions in ENGLAND (e.g. the economic Persecution of Catholics) to extol the Country as a Beacon of Liberty.

Although Voltaire writes ENGLISH very well (considering he had only begun learning it the Year before commencing the 'Letters'), his Language lacks the satiric Bite and linguistic Inventiveness of a Swift or Gay, and so feels comparitively thin. Although there is a complex Irony working throughout, with the 'I' of the fictional Letter-Writer shifting functions (satirical, explanatory etc.) depending on the Subject, the most enjoyable Parts are those most straightforwardly polemical, such as the Attack on Reactionaries hostile to the Growth of Science, or the refreshingly irreverant Approach to the Bard.

How you enjoy these Letters depends on how much Voltaire you can take. His brave Attacks on Intolerance, Fanaticism and Absolutism can never be forgotten, and his Advocacy of the actively Intellectual over the submissively Superstitious was crucial in developing the modern Era; but his relentless Promotion of Reason can itself appear intolerant, shortsighted and incapable of dealing with more inexplicable Mysteries. He mocks the Ancients' philosophical and scientific Errors, asserting the linear Progress of History and human Endeavour, assuming, as did those ancients, that his Age has got everything right. The 25th Letter exposes the limits and inflexibility of Voltaire - taking uncontextualised Excerpts from Pascal's 'Pensees', he attempts to demolish the Jansenist's Christian Logic, but only exposes himself as a poor Reader forever closed to true Mystery, Poetry and Complexity.

This critical Edition includes a valuable Introduction detailing Voltaire's Experiences in England, contextualising the Letters and proving the Importance on his artistic Development of the Writer's Contact with the ENGLISH Language. An interesting Textual Note explains the Genesis of the Work, and the Status of the various national Editions. Appendices include a long Excerpt from Voltaire's Essay (in ENGLISH) on Milton, and a biographical Appreciation by Goldsmith. The Apparatus is somewhat let down by the Notes. Because this Edition is considered a primary Text, rather than a Translation, Cronk assumes the reader to be a Student in FRENCH Literature, and neglects to translate Quotations on occasion, or to identify unfamiliar (to this Reader, anyway) Personnages.

This book is, justifiably, not as famous as _Candide_, but is still a great sample of Voltaire's thinking--and therefore a great example of Enlightenment discourse. In these letters Voltaire criticizes France by praising England, and begins to develop ideas about religion, democracy, and social convention that he continued to work on throughout his life. For my taste, _Philosophical Dictionary_ is more exciting, but these letters are more inviting, and also give insight into the connections between England and France that obviously lie at the heart of their historical antipathy.