Search results for ""Author Voltaire""

The novella has never been out of print and has been translated into every conceivable language. The text of this Norton Critical Edition remains that of Robert M. Adams’s superlative translation, accompanied by explanatory annotations. This edition also includes: A full introduction by Nicholas Cronk; Five background studies of Enlightenment ideas and themes (by Richard Holmes, Adam Gopnik, W. H. Barber, Haydn Mason and Nicholas Cronk), four of these new to the third edition; Eight critical essays—six of them new to this edition—representing a wide range of approaches to Candide. Contributors include J. G. Weightman, Roger Pearson, Dennis Fletcher, Robin Howells, James J. Lynch, Philip Stewart, Erich Auerbach and Jean Starobinski. A revised and expanded Selected Bibliography is also included.

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Throughout 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.

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Voltaire's Treatise on Toleration is one of the most important essays on religious tolerance and freedom of thought A powerful, impassioned case for the values of freedom of conscience and religious tolerance, Treatise on Toleration was written after the Toulouse merchant Jean Calas was falsely accused of murdering his son and executed on the wheel in 1762. As it became clear that Calas had been persecuted by 'an irrational mob' for being a Protestant, the Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire began a campaign to vindicate him and his family. The resulting work, a screed against fanaticism and a plea for understanding, is as fresh and urgent today as when it was written.

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