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

The two texts in this second volume of ‘Voltaire éditeur’ show very different approaches to the works presented. Behind the playful title "Sophonisbe, tragédie de Mairet, réparée à neuf" lies a thorough critique of a classical style that has become, in Voltaire’s view, unplayable. Not a line of the play remains untouched by the ‘editor’. By contrast it is in the annotation of the "Discours de l’Empereur Julien contre les chrétiens" that Voltaire pursues his campaign against l’Infâme, claiming the Roman emperor for the band of Enlightenment philosophes.