Biography of Voltaire

(1694/11/21 - 1778/05/30)

Voltaire
François Marie Arouet
French philosopher and writer

"Work away from us three great evils: boredom, Vice, and need".
He was born November 21, 1694 in Paris.
It was the last of five children of the notary François Arouet, his mother, Marie Marguerite d'Aumary, died when he was seven years of age.
He attended the College of Louis-le-Grand, where he studied with the Jesuits. Early highlighted for their ingenuity in Libertines circles where his uncle had introduced it.
In 1713 he obtained Secretary of the French in the Hague Embassy, work that is expelled because of certain relationships. Since 1718 permanently adopted the pseudonym of Voltaire (Anagram of arouet le Jeune or the place of origin of his father, Air-vault). Among other trades, served as the farmer, architect, watchmaker, industrial... All resounding successes. In addition, said it paid their workers better salaries of all France.
Representative of the French Enlightenment, diffuser of liberal ideas, led a hectic life as pursued intellectual. Enemy of the Jesuits, superstition and religious hypocrisy. He got introduced into the high nobility as a man of letters of the Court and had some problems with the law. Several of his writings, especially a libel that accusing the Regent Philip II, Duke of Orléans, of heinous crimes, precipitated the imprisonment of the Bastille, where he remained eleven months, time that would begin his Oedipustragedy, based on the work of the Greek Sophocles, in addition to begin an epic poem on Henry IV of France.
In 1718 he premiered Oedipus at the Théâtre-français and was very well received. The work of Enrique IV was printed anonymously in Genoa under the title of Poeme of the ligue (1723). It is imprisoned for a second time by a discussion with a member of an illustrious French family. They released him after two weeks following his promise to leave France. He lived for two years in the English capital. He wrote two essays in English: one on epic poetry and one on the history of the French civil wars.
In France, the Government banned the expanded edition of the ligue, which was eventually titled as La HenriadePoeme. Approval for publication came in 1728 and achieved great success, both in France and in the rest of the European continent. In 1731 he wrote history of Charles XII, work that outlines issues and topics that will appear later, fully matured in his famous philosophical letters, published in 1734 and which carries out a radical defense of religious tolerance and ideological freedom, taking as a model the English permissiveness and accusing the Christianity to be the root of all dogmatic bigotry. For this reason, his detention is ordered in the month of May and Voltaire takes refuge in the castle of the cultured Madame Châtelet, woman with which will establish a long personal relationship and which will work conscientiously in a work on Newtonian thinking, entitled: the philosophy of Newton.
In that period he writes plays, novels, stories, satires and short poems. He traveled frequently to Paris and Versailles, where, thanks to the influence of the Marquise de Pompadour, became a favorite of the Court. He was appointed historian of France and later gentleman of the Royal Chamber. In 1746, they elected member of the Académie française.
Poème de Fontenoy (1745), tells the victory of the French over the English during the War of the Austrian Succession, and the century of Louis XV, also include other works of theatre as the Princess of Navarre or the triumph of Trajan, that marked the beginning of his relationship with the Court of Luis XV.
In 1750, he moved to Germany and during their stay in Berlin ended the century of Louis XIV a historical study on the reign of that monarch (1638-1715). In 1758 is set to Ferney, where he spent the rest of his life. During this period he completed the essay on general history and customs and the character of Nations(1756). He wrote several philosophical poems, as the disaster of Lisbon (1756), several novels satirical and philosophical, which include Candide (1759), tragedy Tancredo (1760) and the philosophical dictionary (1764).
Although its ideas permeate all the philosophy of Freemasonry, Voltaire was not initiated in it until months before his death, a honorific title. It was in the mixed lodge Les Neuf Soeurs, April 7, 1778.
Voltaire died May 30, 1778 in Paris, being buried in the Benedictine monastery of Scellieres, near Troyes. In 1791 his ashes were moved to the Pantheon of illustrious men, in Paris with great ceremony.