With an Introduction and Notes by James Fowler, Senior Lecturer in French, University of Kent Voltaire is one of the three greatest French writers of the eighteenth century. He fought against religious persecution, bigotry and injustice throughout his life, and is one of the thinkers who prepared the way for the French Revolution. This volume contains: Zadig 1748 , the story of a young man who becomes king of Babylon; Candide 1759 , Voltaire's most famous tale of all; and in a new translation by Editor James Fowler The Ingenu 1767 , in which the hero, raised by Huron Indians, discovers the ways of Europe. The heroes of these tales are young, handsome, talented, and naive. All three are animated by Voltaire's sparkling wit, but also by his dark satire of ancient regime society. The volume closes with a new translation of Nanine, Voltaire's three-act comedy which was seen, first as dangerously meritocratic, then as anti-revolutionary. The hero falls in love with a servant girl: but will he overcome society's prejudice and marry her?
