Voltaire's Lettres philosophiques

April 1, 1734

Published in French after an illicit English edition, Voltaire's letters on English liberty, tolerance, Shakespeare, and Newtonian science offered a stinging contrast to France. The book was burned in Paris; Voltaire fled to Cirey. The Enlightenment had found its most dangerous pamphleteer, and its first martyred manifesto. Voltaire spent the next decade at Cirey with Emilie du Chatelet, writing histories and plays in comfortable exile.