Books: Voltaire, The Almighty

Voltaire could never accept any form of orthodoxy. He was a thinker who followed his own rules whether it was in his philosophy, his plays, his romantic life or his politics. I think whether one admires Voltaire or not depends on what aspect of Voltaire’s thinking one happens upon. Recently a new biography came out about Voltaire, called simply, Voltaire, by Ian Davidson, essentially it’s Voltaire’s life cobbled together from his own letters and journals. This type of biography is valuable in one sense as it is draws from primary documents, however such an approach can also render a distorted view of a historical personality. If you are interested in getting to know Voltaire better I think Roger Pearson’s, 2005 book, Voltaire the Almighty might be a better choice. Pearson’s biography offers a more grounded look at Voltaire’s long and often troubled life. He focuses on Voltaire’s philosophical love of liberty, which drove much of his thinking and his life. Pearson’s work is not too academic or too technical. It will hold your interest, especially if you are someone who had been exposed to Voltaire’s writing or philosophical ideas. Here is a book that looks at the “brew,” so to speak, from which Voltaire’s ideas were formed and the events that made him one of the most important figures of the French Enlightenment. Voltaire was born, Francois Marie Arouet, an illegitimate child who all through his life pursed the nobility that he so savaged in his writings. He was a complex character, brilliant, yet elusive. What made him tick? I think Pearson’s book does a good job in unraveling the mystery. Davidson’s, Voltaire is best read after one has read a less one-sided look at Voltaire’s life, i.e Voltaire’s own interpretation of his own life. Pearson’s has also written, Voltaire in Exile,(2006) but I have not read. The reviews for it are favorable, so you might want to give this book a look also. Oh, don’t forget to look at some of Voltaire’s famous quotations, most of them gems. Examples: “Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung”, “Behind every successful man stands a surprised mother-in-law.” and finally, “I have lived eighty years of life and know nothing for it, but to be resigned and tell myself that flies are born to be eaten by spiders and man to be devoured by sorrow.”__Voltaire