In the following essay, O'Brien surveys Voltaire's histories, culminating in a study of the Essai sur les moers. O'Brien situates Voltaire in the early Enlightenment debates about the value and accuracy of history, suggesting that Voltaire used literary techniques to revive the status of history as a serious genre.

In this excerpt, Gordon examines the cultural and philosophical background of Voltaire's work, focusing on Voltaire's complex relationship with aristocracy, his disagreement with Leibniz, and his changing thoughts on religion.

In this excerpt, Knapp gives an overview of Voltaire's theatrical career, focusing on his influences and his tragedies. Knapp notes that Voltaire was predominantly influenced by the French classical tradition of Corneille and Racine, but was also taken with the very unclassical freedom of Shakespeare. Knapp suggests that Voltaire was conflicted about the form and formality of the drama, leading to works that sometimes manifested his confusion. His works also reveal the antidogmatic and antiestablish...

In the essay which follows, Iverson discusses the response of other poets to Voltaire's celebratory poem La Bataille de Fontenoy, suggesting that the many parodies intended merely to mock Voltaire actually worked to destabilize the genre of celebratory occasional verse overall. Iverson maintains that Voltaire found himself unable to strike back without lowering himself to the level of his detractors, but that Voltaire perceived the threat to both poetry and national honor.

In these essays, Pearson focuses on the conte L'Homme aux quarante écus as a useful introduction to the contes in general, suggesting that in it, Voltaire outlines the basic themes of the Enlightenment. Pearson argues that the conte form offers Voltaire a great measure of philosophical and rhetorical freedom, and demonstrates Voltaire's writing to be a forerunner of modernity.

In the essay below, Williams presents his history of Voltaire's Essai sur la poésie épique, from the first English essay through the unauthorized translations and Voltaire's corrections. Williams suggests that Voltaire's revisions attempted to make the essay more appealing to French readership, but also had the effect of blunting his arguments.

In the essay below, Carr examines Voltaire's approach to condolences as a social form and a philosophical problem. Carr demonstrates how Voltaire's correspondence reveals the author's facility with recognized social forms of writing, and his efforts to connect himself personally to his correspondent's loss. Voltaire's means of offering consolation, Carr argues, also reflect and illuminate his positions on optimism and the powers and limitations of philosophy.

In this essay, Doyle considers the context and influence of Voltaire's writings on veniality, or the sale of royal offices. Doyle also traces Voltaire's political alignments and his use of the veniality debate to attack Richelieu and Montesquieu.

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.

In the essay which follows, Howells reviews the representation of cities in Voltaire's contes, focusing on the “carnivalesque” as described by literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin. Howells suggests that Babylon is the paradigmatic secular city for Voltaire, being the antithesis of a holy city and thus a manifestation of carnivalesque inversion. Howells cites passages from several contes that depict the “body in process”: the human body participating in sex, eating, and viole...