Œuvres complètes de Voltaire (Complete Works of Voltaire) 50

This volume contains works from 1760 and showcases two sides to Voltaire. "Le Droit du seigneur" is a comic drama featuring rakes, illegitimate heiresses, and true love, and takes as its starting point the abuse of power represented by the custom of jus primae noctis. By contrast, "L’Ecossaise" and the "Anecdotes sur Fréron" are artefacts of the intellectual war between the philosophes and the anti-philosophes. Elie Catherine Fréron, the editor of the influential "L’Année littéraire" journal, was a formidable opponent of Voltaire and launched stinging attacks on Enlightenment ideas. In "L’Ecossaise", Voltaire employs the form of the sentimental comedy to undermine Fréron, who is caricatured as the character ‘Frélon’ – the Wasp. In the "Anecdotes sur Fréron", Voltaire swats the Wasp in a satirical salvo of caustic wit.