ABSTRACT
Voltaire was one of the central figures of the French Enlightenment. His varied and voluminous oeuvre-with contributions in history, drama, poetry, and fiction-stood in the service of his Enlightenment philosophy. An indefatigable champion of rationality and a biting satirist, Voltaire attacked irrationality, obscurantism, and intolerance wherever he found it, but particularly in the Church and secular government. Never a favorite of the authorities, he was imprisoned in the Bastille for a year in his early 20S, upon which he adopted the name Voltaire. He spent much of the rest of his life in exile from Paris, with prolonged stays in England, Prussia, and Switzerland.
