Roger Pearson - Voltaire Almighty : a Life in Pursuit of Freedom.

Voltaire Almighty

A Life in Pursuit of Freedom

Roger Pearson

BLOOMSBURY

2005 by Roger Pearson

Bloomsbury Publishing,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Published by Bloomsbury Publishing, New York and London

Distributed to the trade by Holtzbrinck Publishers

For Vivienne

Contents

I have always valued freedom above everything else.

Mmoires pour servir la vie de M. de Voltaire

Adam, Pre : Jesuit priest and for many years a house-guest of Voltaire at Ferney .

Alembert, Jean Le Rond d (171783): illegitimate son of Mme de Tencin (q.v.), who abandoned him as a baby on the steps of Saint-Jean-le-Rond church; celebrated mathematician and scientist who collaborated with Denis Diderot (q.v.) on the Encyclopdie (until he resigned in 1758) and wrote its Discours prliminaire (1751), was elected a member of the Acadmie des Sciences at a young age and later of the Acadmie Franaise (1754).

Algarotti , Count Francesco (171264): noted for his popularization of Newtonian science in Il Newtonianismo per le dame (1737); subsequently a member of Frederick the Greats court, where he numbered among the kings lovers.

Argens, Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, marquis d (170471): radical deist and philosophe .

Argenson, Marc-Pierre de Boyer, comte d (16961764): brother of the marquis dArgenson (q.v.) and also lifelong schoolfriend of Voltaire; after a period as the senior official in charge of censorship and book publication, became Minister of War and founded the cole Militaire . A supporter of the philosophes, he was the dedicatee of the first volumes of the Encyclopdie.

Argenson, Ren-Louis de Voyer, marquis d (16941757): lifelong schoolfriend of Voltaire, supporter of the philosophes, noted political theorist, and Minister of Foreign Affairs (17447).

Argental, Charles-Augustin Feriol, comte d (170088): nephew of Mme de Tencin (q.v.), magistrate, diplomat at Versailles (representing the Duke of Parma), lifelong schoolfriend of Voltaire, whom he advised on his plays and for whom he acted as intermediary with the Comdie - Franaise during Voltaires long absence from Paris.

Argental, Jeanne Grce Bosc du Bouchet, comtesse d : wife of the above, who also advised on Voltaires plays.

Arouet, Armand (16851745): elder brother of Voltaire, lawyer and public administrator.

Arouet, Franois (16491722): father of Voltaire, lawyer, public administrator and businessman.

Arouet, Marguerite-Catherine : see Mignot .

Arouet, Marie-Marguerite, ne Daumard (?16611701): mother of Voltaire.

Baculard dArnaud, Franois-Thomas-Marie de (17181805): poet, dramatist and writer of romances; once a protg of Voltaire but later scorned by him; sometime lover of Mme Denis (q.v.),

Beaumarchais, Pierre-Augustin Caron de (173299): dramatist, entrepreneur and adventurer, editor of Voltaires Complete Works in the Kehl edition.

Bentinck , Charlotte-Sophie dAldenburg, Countess (17151800): married William, third son of John William Bentinck, the first Earl of Portland, from whom she separated in 1740, friend and probably mistress of Voltaire.

Bernires, Gilles-Henri-Maignart, marquis de : senior judge in the Rouen parlement .

Bernires, Marguerite-Magdeleine du Moutier, marquise de : wife of the above, mistress of Voltaire.

Boileau (-Despraux), Nicolas (16361711): formerly a lawyer, then poet and author of LArt potique (1674); neighbour of Arouet family in the Palais de Justice .

Bolingbroke, Henry St John, Viscount (16781751): thinker and Tory statesman, exiled to France after death of Queen Anne, and again from 1736 to 1744. Author of Letters on the Study and Use of History (1752).

Boufflers, Marie-Catherine de Beauvau, marquise de (1711?): abandoned by her husband, she cook up residence at Lunville in Lorraine at the court of Stanislas (q.v.), the deposed King of Poland, and became his mistress.

Breteuil, Louis-Nicolas Le Tonnelier, baron de : father of Mme du Chtelet (q.v.).

Calas, Jean (16981762): Protestant merchant in Toulouse, executed on false charge of having murdered his son. Finally exonerated in 1765.

Champbonin, Anne Antoinette Franoise Paulin, Mme du Raget de : neighbour and frequent house-guest of Voltaire and Mme du Chtelet at Cirey . Her son worked for a time as Voltaires secretary.

Charles IX (155074): King of France, son of Catherine de Mdicis , who acted as regent during his minority and at whose behest he instigated the Saint Bartholomews Day massacre of French Protestants on 234 August 1572.

Charles XII (16821718): King of Sweden and subject of Voltaires first prose history.

Chteauneuf, Abb Franois de Castagnre de (?1708): Voltaires godfather.

Chtelet, Gabrielle-milie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, marquise du (170649): mathematician and scientist; Voltaires lover and companion from 1733 until her death.

Choiseul, tienne-Franois, comte de Stainville and duc de (171985): after a brilliant military career, became a diplomat, as a protg of Mme de Pompadour (q.v.), and then (as Minister of Foreign Affairs) effectively prime minister from 1758 until his fall from power in 1770.

Cideville, Pierre-Robert Le Cornier de : lifelong schoolfriend of Voltaire, magistrate in the Rouen parlement and supporter of the philosophes.

Clairon, Mlle , pseudonym of Claire-Josphe Leris de Latude (17231803): leading tragic actress with the Comdie - Franaise from 1743 to 1765; with Lekain (q.v.) introduced more natural style of acting.

Collini, Cosimo Alessandro (17271806): Voltaires secretary (17526); from 1759 employed by the Elector Palatine, Prince Karl-Theodor, and became the first Keeper of the Mannheim Natural History Collection.

Condorcet, Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de (174394): mathematician, elected to the Acadmie des Sciences at the age of twenty-six, pupil of dAlembert (q.v.), philosophe, politician during the Revolution, and early biographer of Voltaire.

Corneille, Marie-Franoise : see Dupuits ,

Cramer, Gabriel (172393): Genevan publisher.

Cramer, Philibert (172779): Genevan publisher and member of Genevas ruling council.

Crbillon, Prosper Jolyot, Sieur de (16741762): leading dramatist, official censor, and member of the Acadmie Franaise .

Damilaville, tienne Nol (172368): friend of Voltaire, supporter of the philosophes.

Deffand, Marie de Vichy-Chamrond, marquise du (16971780): former mistress of the Regent, Philippe dOrlans (q.v.); distinguished salon hostess and contemporary of Voltaire, whom she had met at the court of the Duchesse du Maine (q.v.) and with whom she remained in contact for the rest of her life.

Denis, Marie-Louise, ne Mignot (171290): Voltaires niece, mistress (from 1745) and companion (175478).

Desfontaines, Abb Pierre-Franois Guyot (16851745): ex-Jesuit priest, journalist, translator and critic, and Voltaires most reviled enemy.

Diderot, Denis (171384): innovative thinker and atheist philosophe, editor of the Encyclopdie, dramatist, novelist, art critic; many of his more controversial works were published only posthumously.

Dompierre dHornoy, Alexandre : see Hornoy .

Du Barry, Marie-Jeanne Bcu, comtesse (174393): mistress of Louis XV following the death of Mme de Pompadour (q.v.): executed during the Terror.

Duclos, Marie-Anne de Chteauneuf ( Mlle Duclos ) (c. 16701748): leading actress at the Comdie - Franaise .

Dufresne : see Quinault .

Dunoyer, Catherine Olympe (Pimpette) : Voltaires first love.

Duplessis-Villette, Charles Michel, marquis de : friend and host of Voltaire in the last days of his life.

Duplessis-Villette, Reine-Philiberte Rouph de Varicourt, marquise de (Belle et Bonne) : wife of the above, protge of Voltaire during the last years of his life.