Voltaire's involvement with Sirven, has - for long - elicited laudatory judgements from French or Anglo-Saxon voices. If the former proclaimed that 'Voltaire avait une fois encore gagné' (as he had famously done with Calas), the latter have been even more fulsomely assertive : 'he secured a complete victory'; 'Sirven was in one important respect the most successful of Voltaire's human rights campaigns'. Such confidence seems strange, however, given that the topic has not received the coverage that it deserved in France, while - in the English-speaking world - it has merited not one single monograph. This study attempts to rectify such curious overstatements, and to propose conclusions that are more consonant with a good understanding of such a complex affair which was, however, emphatically not 'Calas bis'.
| ISBN: | 9781836245292 |
| Publication date: | 12th December 2025 |
| Author: | John Renwick |
| Publisher: | Voltaire Foundation an imprint of Liverpool University Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 312 pages |
| Series: | Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment |
| Genres: |
Literature: history and criticism European history: Reformation Social and ethical issues |
Voltaire's involvement with Sirven, has - for long - elicited laudatory judgements from French or Anglo-Saxon voices. If the former proclaimed that 'Voltaire avait une fois encore gagné' (as he had famously done with Calas), the latter have been even more fulsomely assertive : 'he secured a complete victory'; 'Sirven was in one important respect the most successful of Voltaire's human rights campaigns'. Such confidence seems strange, however, given that the topic has not received the coverage that it deserved in France, while - in the English-speaking world - it has merited not one single monograph. This study attempts to rectify such curious overstatements, and to propose conclusions that are more consonant with a good understanding of such a complex affair which was, however, emphatically not 'Calas bis'.
Voltaire and the Sirven Affair (1762-1772) features in the following genres: Literature: history and criticism, European history: Reformation, Social and ethical issues
Voltaire and the Sirven Affair (1762-1772) is available in Paperback
Voltaire and the Sirven Affair (1762-1772) was written by John Renwick and published by Voltaire Foundation an imprint of Liverpool University Press
Voltaire and the Sirven Affair (1762-1772) has 312 pages
Yes it is part of Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment series