Œuvres complètes de Voltaire (Complete Works of Voltaire) 71A

In 1770 Voltaire, now aged 76, is writing as furiously as ever. In addition to embarking on an ambitious new project, the "Questions sur l’Encyclopédie", and writing other works of his own, he also becomes interested in publishing the texts of other writers. Three such works are brought together in this volume where they are edited in full for the first time. The first text, a somewhat uncritical edition of a sixteenth-century satire, "Le Cymbalum mundi", is disinterred by Voltaire as a cautionary tale about the absurdities of censorship. The next two, "Les Souvenirs de Mme de Caylus" and the "Journal de Dangeau", are memoirs of the grand siècle, witness to Voltaire’s abiding interest in the age of Louis XIV. In all three of these somewhat unconventional ‘editions’, Voltaire’s own voice comes through loud and clear, in his prefaces, and in often satirical footnotes.