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Voltaire, His Works, Friends, Loves
Candide and Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics)Candide and Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics) by Voltaire
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Your French prof insists you read it: to get all the jokes you need to know about his political exile, social ambition, enemies and loves. A must but often two-dimensional without some background
A Visit from Voltaire: A Comic NovelA Visit from Voltaire: A Comic Novel by Dinah Lee Küng
Buy new: £7.19 / Used from: £0.01
A Orange Prize longlisted comedy in which Voltaire returns, and tries to join the 21st century with a website, L'infame.org. Lots of fun...
The Portable Voltaire (The Viking portable library)The Portable Voltaire (The Viking portable library) by Voltaire
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All you need to quote the Enlightened One, with excellent biographic introduction
Passionate Minds: The Great Enlightenment Love AffairPassionate Minds: The Great Enlightenment Love Affair by David Bodanis
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Wonderful narrative plumbing Emilie's talents/viewpoint
Letters on England (Classics)Letters on England (Classics) by Voltaire
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The young Voltaire, ambitious and polemic, and determined to make a point on everything from Quaker free thought to smallpox shots to the French dullards back home
The Great Philosophers:VoltaireThe Great Philosophers:Voltaire by John Gray
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In 50 pgs, why is Voltaire a Philosophe, when it's so hard to describe his philosophy? What did he share with Christianity--that trust in a single Good,-- when he condemned the faith as nonsense?
Madame De PompadourMadame De Pompadour by Nancy Mitford
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When she wasn't trying to keep Louis XV hooked, Madame de Pompadour sponsored Voltaire as court historiographer, but as usual, he blew it by making mischief
Madame du Deffand and her WorldMadame du Deffand and her World by Benedetta Craveri
Buy new: £10.79 / Used from: £4.49
In exile, V. needed gossip, and du Deffand kept him fed! Having lived a wild youth, she got blind, cranky and silly over Walpole. Wallow in the salons of Paris...
Voltaire in ExileVoltaire in Exile by Ian Davidson
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An excellent retelling of the older V.'s belated evolution into the famed humanitarian of Ferney
Voltaire in LoveVoltaire in Love by Nancy Mitford
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The entertaining Summer Read, about the middle years, and life in his bedroom with the volatile and horny Emilie
Madame de Pompadour: Mistress of FranceMadame de Pompadour: Mistress of France by Christine Pevitt Algrant
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With his buddy Richelieu, V. put her in the King's bed, but her mentoring let him down
Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun KingLove and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King by Antonia Fraser
Buy new: £21.25 / Used from: £2.00
Voltaire wrote a history of Louis XIV, but as that's out of print....Fraser will do