BookRags.com Literature Guides Literature Guides Criticism/Essays Criticism/Essays Biographies Biographies My Bibliography Periodic Table U.S. Presidents Shakespeare Sonnet Shake-Up
Research Anything:        
History | Encyclopedias | Films | News | Create a Bibliography | More... Login | Register | Help

Search "The Story of Philosophy"

Study Guide Navigation
 


The Story of Philosophy Study Guide

Print-Friendly  Order the PDF version  Order the RTF version
by Will Durant
About 91 pages (27,246 words)
The Story of Philosophy Summary

Bookmark and Share

Voltaire and the French Enlightenment Summary and Analysis

A common criticism of Voltaire is that he has all the powers of hell in him. He lives a fairly average life in 1742 Paris but is kind, free with his energy and money, and as diligent helping friends as destroying enemies with a pen. Voltaire produces ninety-nine volumes of extensive and sparkling writing. He is stingy with his time because he has so much yet to do. Work keeps him from suicide in eighty-three years of life. Voltaire's work starts France thinking with unstoppable momentum. He is born Francois Marie Arouet in 1694 Paris. His father is successful as a notary and his mother is an aristocrat. Francois' aunt sees youthful signs of greatness. She gives him money to buy books. His father tells him a profession.....

This is a free excerpt of 135 words. This section contains 1,799 words. This study guide contains 27,246 words (approx. 91 pages at 300 words per page).

Read the rest of this Literature Guide with our The Story of Philosophy Access Pass.

Copyrights
The Story of Philosophy from BookRags and Gale's For Students Series. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.

Join BookRagslearn moreJoin BookRags


About BookRags | Customer Service | Report an Error | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy