Voltaire Omnibus

The Iron Maiden was Wonder Woman, Zena Warrior Princess, and Princess Daenerys, nearly 300 years before it became acceptable for a woman to fight like a man. If the reader is new to Voltaire, I recommend reading first my translation of Candide. In this small, scandalous novel, Voltaire waves the sharp satire's whip against all prejudices. In Candide, he explicitly opposes the philosopher Leibnitz's conclusion that our world is the best possible one that God could have created. Finally, a note from the man himself regarding A Huron Abroad: In 1725 four savages were brought from America to Fontainebleau: I had the honor of conversing with them; there was a lady of the country among them, to whom I asked if she had eaten men; she replied, very honestly, that she had. I must have looked a little scandalized for she excused herself by saying that it was better to eat a dead enemy than leave him to get devoured by the beasts, and that the victors deserved the preference. We kill our neighbors, in battle array or independently, for the most trivial reward of working in the kitchen for the crows and the worms. That is where the horror is, that is what crime is: once we are dead does it really matter whether we are eaten by a soldier, or by a raven or a dog? We respect the dead more than the living. It would have been more necessary to respect each other.

Dettagli