Betty Radice's translation fully preserves the clear, articulate style of the original. In his introduction, R. M. Ogilvie discusses the background to Livy's history and explains how it was structured and compiled.
With the publication of his 'Lettres Philosophiques' in 1734, Voltaire offered the French public a panoramic view of English culture, and one which exerted a decisive influence upon the development of attitudes to England in eighteenth-century France.
Paperback
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Summary
Betty Radice's translation fully preserves the clear, articulate style of the original. In his introduction, R. M. Ogilvie discusses the background to Livy's history and explains how it was structured and compiled.
With the publication of his 'Lettres Philosophiques' in 1734, Voltaire offered the French public a panoramic view of English culture, and one which exerted a decisive influence upon the development of attitudes to England in eighteenth-century France.
Description
Also known as the Lettres anglaises ou philosophiques, Voltaire's response to his exile in England offered the French public of 1734 a panoramic view of British culture. Perceiving them as a veiled attack against the ancien regime, however, the French government ordered the letters burned and Voltaire persecuted.
About the Author
Francois-Marie Arouet, writing under the pseudonym Voltaire, was born in 1694 into a Parisian bourgeois family. Educated by Jesuits, he was an excellent pupil but one quickly enraged by dogma. An early rift with his father - who wished him to study law - led to his choice of letters as a career. Insinuating himself into court circles, he became notorious for lampoons on leading notables and was twice imprisoned in the Bastille.
By his mid-thirties his literary activities precipitated a four-year exile in England where he won the praise of Swift and Pope for his political tracts. His publication, three years later in France, of Lettres philosophiques sur les Anglais (1733) - an attack on French Church and State - forced him to flee again. For twenty years Voltaire lived chiefly away from Paris. In this, his most prolific period, he wrote such satirical tales as Zadig (1747) and Candide (1759). His old age at Ferney, outside Geneva, was made bright by his adopted daughter, 'Belle et Bonne,' and marked by his intercessions on behalf of victims of political injustice. Sharp-witted and lean in his white wig, impatient with all appropriate rituals, he died in Paris in 1778 - the foremost French author of his day.
Product Details
Returns
This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.
