François Marie Arouet essays

Franà §ois Marie Arouet essays My name is Franà §ois Marie Arouet. I am known as one of the most brilliant and influential philosophes in the Enlightenment. I am also known for my incredibly rebellious nature, and my intolerance to anything that I thought was wrong, no matter what kind of authoritative power was behind the idea. I wrote many passages that criticized ideas or people I thought were wrong, and in addition wrote many tragedies, philosophical romances and even a historical study. I was born in Paris on November 21st, 1694. I had an early education at the Jesuit College Louis-le-Grand. When the French regent Philippe II heard of a lampoon I wrote that accused him of heinous crimes, I was imprisoned to Bastille for 11 months. It was in there when I wrote my first tragedy called Edipe. Edipe earned me instant success, fame and fortune. It was at this time that I started calling myself by my pen name, Voltaire. In 1726 a young nobleman, the chevalier de Rohan, angry at the witticism made at him by me, had me beaten. I was then imprisoned again in Bastille through the influence of the noblemans powerful family and was only released two weeks after, when I promised to go to England. In England, I mastered the English language, and in order to prepare England for some of my works, I published two remarkable essays in English, one on epic poetry and another on the history of civil wars in France. I soon gained popularity in England as well. In 1728, I retu rned to France and resided in Paris. However, after a piece of work I published that was accused of being a covert attack on the political institutions of France upset authorities, I was forced to flee Paris. I went to Cirey where I worked on physics and chemistry experiments and began a long correspondence with Prince Frederick II of Prussia. It was through the influence of marquise de Pompadour that I was made royal historiographer, a gentl ...