Author of Audiobooks - Voltaire

Candide, ou l’Optimisme, (“Candide, or Optimism”) (1759) is a picaresque novel by the Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire. Voltaire never openly admitted to having written the controversial Candide; the work is signed with a pseudonym: “Monsieur le...

Ever since 1759, when Voltaire wrote "Candide" in ridicule of the notion that this is the best of all possible worlds, this world has been a gayer place for readers. Voltaire wrote it in three days, and five or six generations have found that its...

Zadig, ou La Destinée, ("Zadig, or The Book of Fate") (1747) is a famous novel written by the French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire. It tells the story of Zadig, a philosopher in ancient Babylonia. The author does not attempt any historical...

Candide is a relentless, brutal assault on government, society, religion, education, and, above all, optimism. Dr. Pangloss teaches his young students Candide and Cunegonde that everything in this world is for the best, a sentiment they cling to as...

Beccaria's treatise On Crimes and Punishments, which condemns disproportionate and irrational penalties in general as well as torture and the death penalty, is said to mark the peak of Enlightenment in Milan. Its translations were widely read by...

L'Ingénu is a satirical novella by the French writer Voltaire, published in 1767. It tells the story of a Huron Indian transported to the sophistication of eighteenth century Paris, and satirizes religious doctrine, as well as the folly and...

Voltaire spent his early thirties in England as an exile following the Bastille imprisonment for his satires. With passionate admiration, he then wrote this series of letters in English putting forward his views on the 18th century England, in...