The life of François-Marie Arouet, a.k.a. Voltaire (1694-1778), could hardly have been as colourful as that of the eponymous hero of his most famous novella, Candide. In his brief but eventful life, Candide encounters, inter alia, massacre, pillage, rape, piracy, mutilation, brutal militarism, cannibalism, slavery, bestiality, vivisection, religious fanaticism and political intolerance. After which, he turns his back on adventure and retires to cultivate his garden, a decision which evidently also appealed to his creator. In 1758 - just as he was writing Candide and following three decades of on-off nomadic wanderings - Voltaire bought an estate on the Franco-Swiss border at Ferney. There he would spend the rest of his life - as an improving landlord.

LRB 25 May 2006 | PDF Download