I’ve had a massive, geeky crush on Voltaire ever since I read Candide in my AP European History and Literature class when I was fifteen. So when we arrived at the Classical era I was very glad. Voltaire was a magnificent writer and philosopher. He wrote novels, essays, poems, plays and more. His works were satirical, witty, and almost always ruffled somebody’s feathers. He was exiled twice from France, which actually gave him the opportunity to meet a lot of great writers from outside the country. After his first exile (during which he stayed in Great Britain), he came back to France only to publish a collection of essays called Philosophical Letters on the English. This book praised the English government for being more just and developed than the French government, and it caused such a stir that he had to leave the country again. Voltaire was never afraid to say what he wanted to say, and this is why I admire him.
Not to mention how handsome he was.
Voltaire was born November 21st, 1694, and he completed Oedipe at the young age of nineteen during his imprisonment in the Bastille. It was put into production five years later, which was just as big a deal back then as it would be now. How many twenty four year olds do you know that have had their works put on stage?
Oedipe, which is French for Oedipus, was a tragedy adapted from the Athenian story Oedipus the King. For those who haven’t read or heard of Oedipus, he was a mythical Greek king who was prophesied to one day kill his father and marry his mother. Because of this, his parents, the king and queen of Thebes send him away at birth to be left to die on a mountain. But the servant feels bad for the infant, and eventually Oedipus is adopted by another couple, the king and queen of Corinth. One day he finds out about the prophecy, but thinking that the Corinthians are his real parents, he resolves to avoid fulfilling the prophecy by running away to Thebes…you can see where this is going.
The story of Oedipe is a great, if incestuous and gory, read. I highly recommend Voltaire’s telling of the story because it takes some of the focus off of the incest and adds a subplot of another character being in love with Jocasta, the queen of Thebes. Since it’s so old, the whole work is now public domain, so while I couldn’t find any youtube videos of it being performed, Oedipe is free to read and download on a number of web sites! Just pay attention to which language it’s in, as most of his works were originally written in French.
Sources:
http://www.theatrehistory.com/french/voltaire001.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltaire
Kylie's Blog 
I’ve heard about this tragedy, but never looked into it. All i’ve gotten is the main jest of it, but i just might look into aquiring a copy to read. I didn’t know much about Volatire and your background information was very helpful. He must have been a fasanating man to have go though all that imprisonment and still be able to produce great works at the same time. I can’t view that picture of Voltaire for some reason. I’ll look into those websites to download Oedipe from, thanks for the suggestion.
Great job providing very factual and accurate information on Voltaire and his work! I, too, have had a crush on the man ever since Candide. So you think Voltaire’s work relates to the rising middle class because of his provocativeness? (I wasn’t quite sure how you connected him there.) Perhaps Voltaire is related to the rising middle class of this period because he was in fact one himself and because his subject matter oftentimes dealt with bourgeois people? Of course, this excludes Oedipe, as it was apparently a parody of the lives of the Regent of France and his daughter!
Oh yes, Voltaire! *sigh* Though, I must admit, any man that gets exiled because he is brave enough to demonstrate intelligence always gets my blood pumping! French accents aren’t oo shabby either! Excellent background information as usual! ‘Oedipe’ really gets a person thinking about their ability to change their destiny.
Great information on Voltaire and summary of Oedipe. I remember reading the tragedy in high school by Sophocles. It is quite the tale. I think you did a good job explaining why Voltaire was so controversial and how his writings relate to the rise of the middle class. Voltaire was seeking social reform and often expressed his feelings through his work, which as we all know often got him into trouble. I am interested now to see Voltaire’s version of this story theatrically performed.
Great blog. I didn’t know much about Voltaire and now I’m really curious. You did a great job explaining all your information. Plus, it definitely comes through on how much you admire him 😉 !
who was the artist of this drawing of voltaire?
Secrets to winning the lottery start with your knowledge about
the game. s the beginning 4th of July weekend the lottery
office is closed for 3 days. It claimed to detect
a variety of problems to scare the user into thinking that the hard drive was about to crash.
What would happen to someone today if they scammed the state lottery, even if they were a very good writer? You have made a good summary, but it is good to make it clear that Voltaire had a solid financial basis for his writing, and then as now, money talks. Still, if there is a 1% in literature, Voltaire would be amongst it for sure:-)