Complete Works of Voltaire 50 : Oeuvres de 1760 (I)

Author / Creator

Balcou, Jean, author

Available as

Online

Summary

This volume contains works from 1760 and showcases two sides to Voltaire. "Le Droit du seigneur" is a comic drama featuring rakes, illegitimate heiresses, and true love, and takes as its starting p...

This volume contains works from 1760 and showcases two sides to Voltaire. "Le Droit du seigneur" is a comic drama featuring rakes, illegitimate heiresses, and true love, and takes as its starting point the abuse of power represented by the custom of jus primae noctis. By contrast, "L'Ecossaise" and the "Anecdotes sur Freron" are artefacts of the intellectual war between the philosophes and the anti-philosophes. Elie Catherine Freron, the editor of the influential "L'Annee litteraire" journal, was a formidable opponent of Voltaire and launched stinging attacks on Enlightenment ideas. In "L'Ecossaise", Voltaire employs the form of the sentimental comedy to undermine Freron, who is caricatured as the character 'Frelon' - the Wasp. In the "Anecdotes sur Freron", Voltaire swats the Wasp in a satirical salvo of caustic wit.

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