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Letters on England

Author Francois Voltaire
Introduction by Leonard Tancock
Translated by Leonard Tancock
Paperback
$14.00 US
Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Classics
5"W x 7.6"H x 0.33"D   | 5 oz | 104 per carton
On sale Jul 31, 1980 | 160 Pages | 978-0-14-044386-8
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Also known as the Lettres anglaises ou philosophiques, Voltaire's response to his exile in England offered the French public of 1734 a panoramic view of British culture. Perceiving them as a veiled attack against the ancien regime, however, the French government ordered the letters burned and Voltaire persecuted.
François-Marie Arouet, writing under the pseudonym Voltaire, was born in 1694 into a Parisian bourgeois family. Educated by Jesuits, he was an excellent pupil but one quickly enraged by dogma. An early rift with his father—who wished him to study law—led to his choice of letters as a career. Insinuating himself into court circles, he became notorious for lampoons on leading notables and was twice imprisoned in the Bastille.

By his mid-thirties his literary activities precipitated a four-year exile in England where he won the praise of Swift and Pope for his political tracts. His publication, three years later in France, of Lettres philosophiques sur les Anglais (1733)—an attack on French Church and State—forced him to flee again. For twenty years Voltaire lived chiefly away from Paris. In this, his most prolific period, he wrote such satirical tales as “Zadig” (1747) and “Candide” (1759). His old age at Ferney, outside Geneva, was made bright by his adopted daughter, “Belle et Bonne,” and marked by his intercessions in behalf of victims of political injustice. Sharp-witted and lean in his white wig, impatient with all appropriate rituals, he died in Paris in 1778—the foremost French author of his day.

View titles by Francois Voltaire
Letters on England - Voltaire Translated by Leonard Tancock

Introduction
Letter 1: On the Quakers
Letter 2: On the Quakers
Letter 3: On the Quakers
Letter 4: On the Quakers
Letter 5: On the Anglican Religion
Letter 6: On the Presbyterians
Letter 7: On the Socinians, Arians or Anti-Trinitarians
Letter 8: On Parliament
Letter 9: On the Government
Letter 10: On Commerce
Letter 11: On Innoculation with Smallpox
Letter 12: On Chancellor Bacon
Letter 13: On Mr. Locke
Letter 14: On Descartes and Newton
Letter 15: On the System of Gravitation
Letter 16: On the Optics of Newton
Letter 17: On Infinity and Chronology
Letter 18: On Tragedy
Letter 19: On Comedy
Letter 20: On Noble Lords who cultivate literature
Letter 21: On the Earl of Rochester and Mr. Waller
Letter 22: On Mr. Pope and some other famous poets
Letter 23: On the Consideration due to Men of Letters
Letter 24: On Academies
Letter 25: On the Pensées of Pascal
Notes
Appendix

About

Also known as the Lettres anglaises ou philosophiques, Voltaire's response to his exile in England offered the French public of 1734 a panoramic view of British culture. Perceiving them as a veiled attack against the ancien regime, however, the French government ordered the letters burned and Voltaire persecuted.

Author

François-Marie Arouet, writing under the pseudonym Voltaire, was born in 1694 into a Parisian bourgeois family. Educated by Jesuits, he was an excellent pupil but one quickly enraged by dogma. An early rift with his father—who wished him to study law—led to his choice of letters as a career. Insinuating himself into court circles, he became notorious for lampoons on leading notables and was twice imprisoned in the Bastille.

By his mid-thirties his literary activities precipitated a four-year exile in England where he won the praise of Swift and Pope for his political tracts. His publication, three years later in France, of Lettres philosophiques sur les Anglais (1733)—an attack on French Church and State—forced him to flee again. For twenty years Voltaire lived chiefly away from Paris. In this, his most prolific period, he wrote such satirical tales as “Zadig” (1747) and “Candide” (1759). His old age at Ferney, outside Geneva, was made bright by his adopted daughter, “Belle et Bonne,” and marked by his intercessions in behalf of victims of political injustice. Sharp-witted and lean in his white wig, impatient with all appropriate rituals, he died in Paris in 1778—the foremost French author of his day.

View titles by Francois Voltaire

Table of Contents

Letters on England - Voltaire Translated by Leonard Tancock

Introduction
Letter 1: On the Quakers
Letter 2: On the Quakers
Letter 3: On the Quakers
Letter 4: On the Quakers
Letter 5: On the Anglican Religion
Letter 6: On the Presbyterians
Letter 7: On the Socinians, Arians or Anti-Trinitarians
Letter 8: On Parliament
Letter 9: On the Government
Letter 10: On Commerce
Letter 11: On Innoculation with Smallpox
Letter 12: On Chancellor Bacon
Letter 13: On Mr. Locke
Letter 14: On Descartes and Newton
Letter 15: On the System of Gravitation
Letter 16: On the Optics of Newton
Letter 17: On Infinity and Chronology
Letter 18: On Tragedy
Letter 19: On Comedy
Letter 20: On Noble Lords who cultivate literature
Letter 21: On the Earl of Rochester and Mr. Waller
Letter 22: On Mr. Pope and some other famous poets
Letter 23: On the Consideration due to Men of Letters
Letter 24: On Academies
Letter 25: On the Pensées of Pascal
Notes
Appendix

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