Books by Voltaire

Portrait of Voltaire

Voltaire, the eminent Enlightenment thinker, combined razor-sharp wit with fearless critique to challenge orthodoxy, superstition, and tyranny. His writing, marked by clarity and irony, championed freedom of thought and the power of reason, making him one of Europe's most influential voices in the eighteenth century.

Readers continue to turn to Voltaire for his incisive satires, philosophical tales, and eloquent defences of tolerance. Whether encountered through his celebrated fiction or his pointed essays, his work remains a lively call to question authority and uphold the rights of the individual.

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667 products


  • Candide

    Dover Publications Inc. Candide

    4 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    4 in stock

    £6.23

  • A Pocket Philosophical Dictionary Oxford Worlds

    Oxford University Press A Pocket Philosophical Dictionary Oxford Worlds

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisVoltaire's Pocket Philosophical Dictionary is a major work of the European Enlightenment. It consists of a series of short essays, arranged alphabetically, whose unifying thread is an attack on religious and political intolerance. Highly entertaining, its concern with intolerance and its consequences is still relevant today.Trade Reviewa marvellously Swiftian look at the bleakness of existence. * Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian *In John Fletcher's wonderfully luminous translation, the Dictionnaire philosophique portatif is like a breath of fresh air... Nicholas Cronk's discreet, helpful introduction and notes direct us to Voltaire's main concern: religion. * David Coward, Times Literary Supplement *

    3 in stock

    £10.44

  • Letters concerning the English Nation

    Oxford University Press Letters concerning the English Nation

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisInspired by Voltaire's stay in England (1726-8), this is one of the key works of the Enlightenment. Exactly contemporary with Gulliver's Travels and The Beggar's Opera, Voltaire's controversial pronouncements on politics, philosophy, religion, and literature have placed the Letters among the great Augustan satires.Voltaire wrote most of the book in English, in which he was fluent and witty, and it fast became a bestseller in Britain. He re-wrote it in French as the Lettres philosophiques, and current editions in English translate his French. This edition restores for the modern reader Voltaire's own English text, allowing us to appreciate him as a stylist at first hand. It is the only critical edition of the original text and, as well as providing an introduction and notes, it includesintriguing accounts of Voltaire by contemporary English observers.

    1 in stock

    £9.49

  • Candide and LIngénu

    Union Square & Co. Candide and LIngénu

    3 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    3 in stock

    £10.44

  • Candide And Other Stories

    Everyman Candide And Other Stories

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe spirit of satire flourished during the Enlightenment, and its crowning achievement was Voltaire's "Candide". It follows the worldwide encounters - with shipwrecks, earthquakes, pestilence and human insanity - of its hero and his absurd tutor, Dr Pangloss.

    2 in stock

    £12.34

  • Candide and Other Works

    Wordsworth Editions Ltd Candide and Other Works

    20 in stock

    Book SynopsisWith an Introduction and Notes by James Fowler, Senior Lecturer in French, University of Kent Candide (1759) is a bright, colourful literary firework display of a novella. With sparkling wit and biting humour, Voltaire hits several targets with fierce and comic satire: organised religion, the overweening pride of aristocrats, merchants' greed, colonial ambition and the hopeless complacency of Leibnizian philosophy that believes 'all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds'. Through this rites of passage story, with his central character, Candide, a naïve and impressionable young man, Voltaire attacks the social ills of his day, which remarkably remain as pertinent now as ever. Zadig is a tale of love and detection. Edgar Allan Poe was inspired by this story when he created C. Auguste Dupin in 'The Murders in the Rue Morgue', a story which established the modern detective fiction genre. The Ingenu recounts how a young man raised by Huron Indians discover the ways of Europe. Nanine is a sharp three act comedy concerned with marital dilemmas. In all these works Voltaire manages to combine humour with trenchant satire in a highly entertaining fashion.

    20 in stock

    £6.23

  • Candide

    Graphic Arts Books Candide

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisYoung Candide is ejected from his idyllic life in a protected castle and finds himself encountering wild adventures and harsh trials that put to the test his teacher’s claim that we live in the best of all possible worlds.Honest and simple to a fault, Candide finds that a bit of romance leads only to exile and sudden immersion in a larger and more frightening world. Armed with the optimistic teachings of his mentor Pangloss, he is soon astounded to be arrested, beaten and forced into military service. The author doesn’t spare his hero, hurling him into a shipwreck, an earthquake, a tidal wave and a city-wide wildfire in short order. Pursuing his true love and reunited with Pangloss, who interprets each new setback, no matter how horrific, as another sign that everything happens for the best, Candide refuses to abandon hope but begins to question his teacher’s bottomless optimism. An outrageous picaresque quest full of barbed observations about human behavior and belief, politics and institutions, Candide was condemned for the fiercely irreverent stance it delicately conceals beneath its hero’s guileless nature and chain of extravagant adventures. Triumphing over censorship, the book has had profound influence on philosophy and politics since its first appearance in 1759, but remains a classic that can be read for pure pleasure.With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Candide is both modern and readable.

    2 in stock

    £6.78

  • Micromegas: Newly Translated and Annotated

    Alma Books Ltd Micromegas: Newly Translated and Annotated

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisMicromegas is a six-hundred-and-fifty-year-old, thirty-nine-kilometre-high giant from the planet Sirius who can speak a thousand languages and has been expelled from his homeland for writing a heretical tract. On Saturn he befriends the local secretary of the Academy of Sciences – a comparative dwarf, being only two kilometres high – and the two decide to travel to earth together, where they will make startling discoveries about human nature. At once a story-length Bildungsroman and a philosophical tale, ‘Micromegas’ is a classic Enlightenment text, and is accompanied in this volume by thirteen other pieces – including ‘Plato’s Dream’ and ‘Memnon’ – all in a new translation by acclaimed French specialist Douglas Parmée.Trade ReviewVoltaire will always be regarded as the biggest name of recent literature, and perhaps throughout all the centuries. -- Johann Wolfgang von GoetheThis welcome selection of fourteen of the lesser-known fables and parables comes in a wonderfully loose-limbed and unstuffy translation which shows both Voltaire – and the late Douglas Parmée – on top form. * TLS *

    1 in stock

    £7.59

  • Candide

    W. W. Norton & Company Candide

    1 in stock

    1 in stock

    £11.39

  • Candide

    Arcturus Publishing Ltd Candide

    1 in stock

    1 in stock

    £6.99

  • Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary

    Double 9 Books Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary

    1 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    1 in stock

    £14.39

  • Candide and Other Stories ne Oxford Worlds

    Oxford University Press Candide and Other Stories ne Oxford Worlds

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisCandide is the most famous of Voltaire's 'philosophical tales', in which he combined witty improbabilities with the sanest of good sense. This edition includes four other prose tales - Micromegas, Zadig, The Ingênu, and The White Bull - and a verse tale based on Chaucer's The Wife of Bath's Tale,: What Pleases the Ladies.Table of ContentsCandide ; Micromegas ; Zadig ; The Ingenu ; The White Bull ; What Pleases the Ladies

    10 in stock

    £6.99

  • Candide, or The Optimist

    Pan Macmillan Candide, or The Optimist

    5 in stock

    Book SynopsisCandide, or the Optimist is Voltaire’s hilarious and deeply scathing satire on the Age of Enlightenment. This classic of French literature has been a bestseller for over two hundred years.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library, a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold-foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This classic of French literature features an introduction by Dr Marine Ganofsky.Young nobleman Candide lives a sheltered and comfortable life under the tutorship of the ridiculous Dr Pangloss who espouses the prevailing 18th-century philosophy of Optimism. Following an indiscretion, Candide is cast out into the world which according to Pangloss is ‘the best of all possible worlds’. But this is not so, Candide and his companions encounter nothing but ludicrous calamities in their madcap travels around the world – war crimes, earthquakes, inquisitions and chain gangs – all based with horrible closeness on real events of the 18th century.Trade ReviewCandide remains politically topical and its McCarthy-era satire has, unfortunately, lost little relevance -- John Allison * Telegraph *It was no fable inhabiting some make-believe or symbolic location; rather, it was a report on the current state of the world, deliberately set among the headlines of the day -- Julian Barnes * Guardian *

    5 in stock

    £9.49

  • Voltaire Miracles and Idolatry

    Penguin Books Ltd Voltaire Miracles and Idolatry

    5 in stock

    Book SynopsisThroughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.Voltaire''s short, radical and iconoclastic essays on philosophical ideas from angels to idolatry, miracles to wickedness, make wry observations about human beliefs, and mock hypocrisy and extravagant piety - his call to his fellow men to act with reason and see through the lies they are fed by their leaders has provided inspiration to freethinkers everywhere.

    5 in stock

    £6.99

  • Treatise on Toleration

    Penguin Books Ltd Treatise on Toleration

    3 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    3 in stock

    £9.49

  • Candide - Livre + downloadable audio

    Hachette Candide - Livre + downloadable audio

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    1 in stock

    £12.57

  • L'Ingénu de Voltaire (fiche de lecture et analyse

    Comprendre La Litterature L'Ingénu de Voltaire (fiche de lecture et analyse

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    1 in stock

    £9.90

  • £142.79

  • £153.91

  • £119.43

  • £126.10

  • £126.10

  • Voltaire Foundation Complete Works of Voltaire 13D

    Book Synopsis

    £126.10

  • £126.10

  • £119.43

  • £126.10

  • £137.23

  • Reclam Philipp Jun. Candide

    Book Synopsis

    £8.20

  • Voltaire Foundation Questions Sur LEncyclopdie Par Des Amateurs

    20 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    20 in stock

    £142.79

  • Voltaire Foundation Œuvres complètes de Voltaire Complete Works of

    20 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    20 in stock

    £131.67

  • Voltaire Foundation Commentaire Historique I

    20 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    20 in stock

    £119.43

  • Voltaire Foundation Complete Works of Voltaire 44C Annales de lEmpire

    20 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    20 in stock

    £131.67

  • HardPress Publishing Oeuvres 1

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £25.38

  • Hardpress Publishing Oeuvres Completes De Voltaire Tome Quarantieme Dictionnaire Philosophique Tome Iv 1

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £19.95

  • Hardpress Publishing Oeuvres Completes De Voltaire Tome SoixanteCinquieme Recueil Des Lettres De M De Voltaire 17671768 Tome X 1

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £20.95

  • 15 in stock

    £16.10

  • 15 in stock

    £20.95

  • HardPress Publishing Oeuvres Complètes De Voltaire

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £24.21

  • Hardpress Publishing uvres Compltes De Voltaire Correspondance Avec Le Roi De Prussia 1

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £18.00

  • Hardpress Publishing Works 1

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £15.95

  • Hardpress Publishing Correspondance GEnerale 1

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £19.95

  • HardPress Publishing The Works of M. De Voltaire

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £17.46

  • Hardpress Publishing Oeuvres Compltes De Voltaire Correspondance Avec Dalembert 1

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £21.80

  • Hardpress Publishing Oeuvres Completes De Voltaire Tome TrenteHuitieme Dictionnaire Philosophique Tome Ii 1

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £18.95

  • Hardpress Publishing Oeuvres De Voltaire 1

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £19.95

  • Hardpress Publishing The CoffeeHouse or Fair Fugitive a Comedy of Five Acts Written by Mr Voltaire Translated from the French 1

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £12.30

  • Hardpress Publishing Correspondance Gnrale 1

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £18.95

  • HardPress Publishing Oeuvres ComplÃtes De Voltaire

    15 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    15 in stock

    £19.62

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