SOURCE: Brumfitt, J. H. “Voltaire Historian and the Royal Mistresses.” In Voltaire, the Enlightenment and the Comic Mode, edited by Maxine G. Cutler, pp. 11-26. New York: Peter Lang, 1990.

In this essay, Brumfitt examines Voltaire's writings to and about royal mistresses. Brumfitt observes that while Voltaire was skilled at flattery, his overall view of these women appears to be dim, though he cautions against seeing Voltaire's treatment of mistresses as representative of his views about women in general.

As Jean Sareil has vividly demonstrated,¹ Voltaire was a master of the art of the compliment. His flattery, it is true, had little success when directed towards the monarch he would probably most have wished to captivate: Louis XV. With royal mistresses, however, he was more fortunate. Mme de Prie, mistress of the due de Bourbon, was not, strictly speaking, a “royal” mistress, but it is tempting to include her...