The Works of Voltaire, Vol. IV of XLIII.

Voltaire, 1694-1778Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.7
Word count
427K words
Chapters
43

Tags

English Originals Foreign Literature Historical ReappraisalHumanistic CareComplex HumanityIntellectual EnlightenmentFree SpiritWestern ThoughtPhilosophical EssayIntellectual CommentarySatirical StyleEclectic Reading

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Works of Voltaire, Vol. IV of XLIII. by VoltaireAuthor: Voltaire, 1694-1778,Language: English, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Aug 17, 2015

Editor's review

This is Volume IV of the forty-three-volume collected works of Voltaire, a free Project Gutenberg eBook in English translation, classified under PQ: Language and Literatures. For Chinese readers, its value lies not in reading the whole set straight through, but in using a single volume as a sample to observe the reasoning, satire, and narrative rhythm of Enlightenment-era French letters. Voltaire's prose is dense and allusion-heavy, and the English translation adds another layer, so notes and background material are needed while reading. It suits as supplementary material for studying Western classics or as a source-text selection for comparative literature and intellectual history courses. The electronic edition is easy to search and excerpt, making it suitable for annotated reading on a computer or tablet; it is not recommended as light reading to flip through from start to finish.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Look up Voltaire's life and the background of the Enlightenment before entering the text to lower the threshold of understanding.
  2. No need to read in volume order; begin with shorter, clearly themed pieces.
  3. Jot down names, allusions, and targets of satire as you read, and verify them with notes or encyclopedias.
  4. If the English proves difficult, proceed alongside a reliable Chinese translation or introductory material.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43

FAQ

Is this book in Chinese or English? The source indicates that the eBook is in English; it is an English translation of Voltaire's collected works, not a Chinese translation. Chinese readers will need some English reading ability and may use Chinese introductions or translations as support.
Can I read Volume IV without having read the earlier volumes? You can try. The volumes of the collected works are relatively independent, though Voltaire's writing often involves themes and allusions that echo across volumes. If time is limited, read a single piece first, then decide whether to read other volumes.
What is the best way to read the electronic edition? The public-domain electronic text provided by Project Gutenberg is easy to search and copy, making it suitable for annotating, excerpting, and topic searches on a computer or tablet. Using note-taking software to organize characters and allusions is better suited to study-style reading than a paper copy.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Voltaire, 1694-1778 Author

Voltaire (1694–1778) was a highly influential French writer and thinker of the Enlightenment, known for his sharp satire, witty argumentation, and lucid prose. The collection holds 44 of his works, including Candide, ou l'optimisme, Zadig, and Letters on England. Candide uses its protagonist's extraordinary adventures and black humour to question blind optimism; Zadig employs an Oriental tale to explore fate and reason; and Letters on England reflects on French religious and political conditions through observations of English society and thought. Spanning philosophical tales, letters, and essays, these works are concise yet trenchant in language and have had a profound influence on later European literature and the spread of Enlightenment ideas. Because public information is limited, details of his early life and specific biography are not elaborated here.