This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. He spent two years in England to avoid further time in the Bastille, and lived most of his later years in self-imposed rural exile, far from the salons of Paris. And when his literary precautions failed, Voltaire was quick to skip town. By clouding his work with jokes, double-meanings and ironic commentary, Voltaire sought to inoculate himself from official opprobrium and communicate on multiple levels. He would have characters in his stories challenge religious or political orthodoxies, but would follow their claims up with other characters declaring such statements to be heretical and punishable by death.
If, for example, he wished to scold the clumsy reputation of the medical establishment, he would observe that, “despite the ministrations of the greatest doctors of Europe, the patient survived.” He gave foolish characters names that were anagrams for well-known religious figures. Voltaire instead mastered the art of couching his trenchant or subversive thoughts in irony, obfuscation and satire.
It was a sufficiently unpleasant experience that he subsequently avoided saying anything that might be considered directly critical of the Church or state. In his early twenties, he insulted an aristocrat and was sent to the Bastille. But his biting wit often got him into trouble with absolutist French rulers and the likeminded Catholic Church. He enjoyed a better education than would have been typical for someone of his middle-class upbringing, and gained early fame as a playwright. Voltaire was born François-Marie Arouet in 1694. Article content We should start by getting the facts straight about Voltaire’s iconic line. Voltaire was never one to put his life on the line for anyone’s beliefs, least of all his own
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