Voltaire

Voltaire (1694–1778), born François-Marie Arouet, was an 18th-century French Enlightenment thinker, man of letters, philosopher and historian, hailed as "the king of French thought." He championed freedom of belief, freedom of speech and judicial fairness, and sharply criticized religious fanaticism and despotic rule, exerting a profound influence on public opinion before the French Revolution and on the European Enlightenment. In literature he is known for his philosophical tales, which use invented stories and satire to explore fate, suffering and reason. This collection includes 18 of his works, among them the philosophical novels Candide, L'Ingénu and Zadig, as well as Volume 10 of the Voltaire Collected Works and Fu Lei's translations of his philosophical fiction. Classified under foreign literature, philosophy, world classics and social fiction, these works remain witty and incisive, offering Chinese readers an important gateway to Enlightenment literature.