Complete Works of Voltaire 45A

Following his traumatic departure from the court of Frederick the Great, Voltaire wrote "L’Orphelin de la Chine", a play later identified as a turning point in French theatre from the point of view of costume and set design. As he settled in Switzerland, he composed the "Epître de l’auteur, en arrivant dans sa terre près du lac de Genève". Yet he remained alert to goings-on in the outside world: in Italy, with the "Examen du Testament politique du cardinal Albéroni", in Portugal, with the "Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne", which grapples with the problem of human suffering and foreshadows "Candide", and in Austria and Hungary, with some shorter poems.