The Cambridge Companion to Voltaire

As a leading thinker of the European Enlightenment Voltaire is a central figure in France''s collective cultural memory. The popularity of Candide has made him perhaps best known as a writer of tales. Yet these represent only a fraction of his entire uvre. Voltaire created a style of authorship which made him the most famous writer in Europe and made him a figurehead for a certain style of writing and thinking. This Companion covers his plays fiction pamphlets correspondence biblical criticism and historical political and philosophical thought to give a wide-ranging view of his writings. The most comprehensive book on Voltaire available in English it makes accessible the most recent research in France as well as the English-speaking world in a series of original essays and a guide to sources. The essays demonstrate why Voltaire remains an essential point of reference in defining the modern intellectual today.