Voltaire'S Philosophical Dictionary

François-Marie Arouet was born in Paris in 1694 and was registered as the son of a successful Parisian notary, François Arouet, and his wife, although he himself suspected that he was the son of Madame Arouet and a minor poet.
After studying at a Jesuit college, where he enjoyed school plays above all, he decided to embark on a literary career and in society: both earned him two stays in the Bastille prison (for satirical pamphlets first, for a fight with a nobleman later). On his release from prison, he gave himself the name of Lord of Voltaire. He was a playwright, historian, philosopher, science popularizer, businessman, member of the French Academy of Sciences, farmer, landowner, venture capitalist, civil and human rights activist, court man exiled in the countryside and, above all, the most famous, admired and hated author of his time.
He died in 1778, shortly after returning to Paris after an exile of more than twenty years. His work is very extensive and has never been sold out in a single collection. The Voltaire Foundation, in Oxford, plans to publish it in 85 volumes. Candide or Optimism is considered his best "philosophical tale" and is one of the best novels in the history of literature.