ABSTRACT
Monsieur de Voltaire knew that his familiar letters were copied and handed about, were even published in the literary periodicals of the day, and he knew also what a seductive charm his witty gossip exercised over contemporaries. No account of Voltaire’s work can be closed without reference to his Correspondence. Nevertheless, the literary value of Voltaire’s letters is high, and, even if one does not altogether share the admiration expressed by Saint-Beuve and M. Lanson, one would never deny their assertion that the art of Voltaire is conspicuously and amiably displayed in his Correspondence. The intellectual energy of Voltaire is displayed in his letters, as in his other work ; but the reader is even more delighted by their variety and appropriateness. Voltaire’s prose has the familiar ease of Montaigne’s and the restraint of Racine’s with an additional charm and grace of his own.
