Œuvres complètes de Voltaire, 28B: Œuvres de 1742–1745 (II) (review)

Voltaire was in energetic yet reflective mode during the period 1742–45, as evidenced by a number of key texts contained within the present volume of the Œuvres complètes, tackling topics as varied as peace, fanaticism, history, theism, and albinos (the last by Jean Mayer). In Sur le théisme, David Williams underlines the progression of a text that began as Du déisme in 1742 only to align itself with the less extreme théisme in subsequent years. This essay is part of Voltaire's lifelong campaign against l'infâme, or religious intolerance within Christian factions. Williams links Du fanatisme with Mahomet, situating both within Voltaire's enduring horror of dogmatic absurdities and intolerance. A number of this volume's essays fuse irony with bemusement at the world's incongruities. Williams not only situates each essay within Voltaire's thought, but in certain cases revisits, with erudite reasoning, the presumed date of composition. In theoretical pieces Voltaire intends to instruct and to influence, hinting heavily through parable-like example: 'l'écrit du citoyen obscur fut une semence qui germa peu àpeu dans la tête des grands hommes' (p. 92). In her editions of Voltaire's first short forays into historiography, Remarques sur l'histoire and Nouvelles considérations sur l'histoire, Myrtille Méricam-Bourdet emphasizes the philosophe's focus on the potential usefulness of history for an enlightened readership. She highlights the insistence on rational examples, in stark contrast to previous histories guilty of indulging the realm of the fable. Voltaire controversially includes biblical genealogy within this accusation. As Williams underlines in Sur la fable, Antiquity's fables are to be admired for their moral value but not copied within history. Ultimately, the Remarques read as a rejection of previous historical tradition, whereas the Nouvelles considérations resembleamanifesto fora new, Enlightenment history, with insistence on rigorous methodology and attention to original sources. Voltaire's theorizing is never far removed from current events or contemporary society, or from his attempt to curry favour with Louis XV through diplomatic writings, as evidenced by his poem on events of 1744 (Ralph A. Nablow), official correspondence with the tsarina (Michel Mervaud), a diplomatic note to Holland (Jeroom Vercruysse), a manifesto in support of Bonnie Prince Charlie (Janet Godden), and poetry on the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48) (Nablow). Voltaire's enthusiastic Poème de Fontenoy (O. R. Taylor, Christopher Todd, John R. Iverson) was composed by the historiographe du roi to celebrate Louis XV's 1745 military success over an allied force of English, Hanoverian, Dutch, and Austrian troops. Despite being part of a deluge of panegyric, Voltaire's poetic offering has political significance for his blossoming court career. Throughout this impressive volume, textual combinations of criticism, theory, attack, and cajoling make for an astonishingly rich collection of key Voltairean writings, each enhanced for modern readers by the presence of contemporaneous texts. These works are edited and commented with outstanding precision. While they predominantly reflect Voltaire's desire to forge a diplomatic role for himself alongside d'Argenson and Louis XV, they also mark his significant success — however short-lived — when appointed in the style of Boileau to the position of royal poet-historiographer.