Voltaire

Voltaire was the pen name of François-Marie Arouet, born in Paris in 1694 and died there in 1778. He became one of the leading figures of the French Enlightenment, a writer of extraordinary range who produced plays, poems, histories, letters, essays and short philosophical tales. His wit made him famous, and it also brought him trouble: he was imprisoned in the Bastille and spent years in exile in England, at the court of Frederick the Great of Prussia, and later near the Swiss border at Ferney. In his writing he defended religious tolerance, freedom of expression and fair legal process, and he attacked fanaticism and cruelty with irony. His best-known work today is the short satirical tale Candide, which still reads as lively and sharp. Voltaire matters because he helped shape the modern habit of questioning authority, and he showed that clear, humorous prose could be a powerful tool for public argument.