Voltaire
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- "It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." --Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (21 November, 1694 – 30 May, 1778), better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, essayist, deist and philosopher known for his wit, philosophical sport, and defense of civil liberties, including freedom of religion and the right to a fair trial. He was an outspoken supporter of social reform despite strict censorship laws in France and harsh penalties for those who broke them. A satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize Christian Church dogma and the French institutions of his day.
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Bibliography
Major works
- Œdipe (1718)
- Zaïre (1732)
- Lettres philosophiques sur les Anglais (1733), revised as Letters on the English (circa 1778)
- Le Mondain (1736)
- Sept Discours en Vers sur l'Homme (1738)
- Zadig (1747)
- Micromégas (1752)
- L'Orphelin de la Chine (1755)
- Candide (1758)
- Dictionnaire philosophique (1764)
- L'Ingénu (1767)
- La Princesse de Babylone (1768)
- Épître à l'Auteur du Livre des Trois Imposteurs (Letter to the author of The Three Impostors) (1770)
Plays
Voltaire wrote between fifty and sixty plays, including a few unfinished ones. Among them are these:
Historical
- History of Charles XII, King of Sweden (1731)
- The Age of Louis XIV (1752)
- The Age of Louis XV (1746 - 1752)
- Annals of the Empire - Charlemagne, A.D. 742 - Henry VII 1313, Vol. I (1754)
- Annals of the Empire - Louis of Bavaria, 1315 to Ferdinand II 1631 Vol. II (1754)
- History of the Russian Empire Under Peter the Great (Vol. I 1759; Vol. II 1763)
