The Independent - London, October 14th, 1995
They corresponded prodigiously and effusively for four years. One wrote to "my Apollo", "my Socrates", the other to "my Trajan"; they enclosed their latest poems and swapped compliments accordingly. At last, in September 1740, the French playwright/poet/ philosophe Francois-Marie Arouet, adopted name Voltaire, aged 45, was to meet Frederick, newly crowned king of Prussia, 28. Plans were laid; expectancy soared. "I am sure to faint from joy," wrote Voltaire. Responded Frederick, "I believe I shall die from it." The meeting would appear doomed to anticlimax, but, on the contrary, Frederick stag...
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