Jean-Antoine Houdon: Voltaire

Voltaire is still the most important representative of the Enlightenment in Europe. He was a firm critic of absolutism, feudalism and the Catholic Church. Throughhis extensive corr...

The Introduction outlines the aims of this VSI: it is an introduction to the making of Voltaire, an Enlightenment celebrity. It is also an examination of the way Voltaire spent his...

‘The life and the afterlife’ considers the challenges for Voltaire’s biographers. It is not easy to write a satisfactory account of his life: we know too much and too little. Anoth...

This chapter discusses a movement of modern democratic type in Geneva in 1768, which made a positive impression on institutions of government. In the roles played by upper, middle,...