Voltaire

This chapter looks at Jean-Jacques Rousseau's letter to Voltaire on January 30, 1750. Rousseau wrote this letter after a report had spread that a man named Rousseau had ostentatiously refused to applaud at a performance of Voltaire's play Orestes . The letter's conclusion may indicate that Voltaire had complained about this, thinking that Jean-Jacques Rousseau was the culprit. Voltaire replied that he understood that Rousseau was not capable of such an action. This is the first time Rousseau identifies himself as “citizen of Geneva” in something he wrote. He used this designation in most of his writings and acquired the nickname “Citizen.” At this time, however, Rousseau's conversion to Catholicism after he had run away from Geneva had caused him to lose his citizenship, which he did not reacquire until 1755.