In 1726 a talented French writer who enjoyed involvement in polemics set off into exile in England. Voltaire had recently received a beating at the hands of the henchmen of the Chevalier de Rohan‐Chabot, followed by a period of imprisonment in the Bastille. During his stay in England Voltaire developed his thoughts and comparisons regarding the respective British and French political, cultural, scientific and religious situations. Using an often idealised Britain Voltaire attacked the faults of the French system which had both stifled and persecuted him. The ensuing work would become the famous Lettres philosophiques. Although initially condemned in France, it has subsequently become one of the cornerstones of French thought. It has also come to symbolise the Franco‐British exchange of ideas and culture.
Today a similar spirit of intellectual exchange finds its embodiment in the work of the Oxford Voltaire Foundation and in the wider publishing and research on Voltaire undertaken by British academics and thinkers in partnership with their French colleagues. Most appropriately, Cambridge University Press, whose earlier incarnation was once praised by Voltaire for producing “admirable” works, has added a volume on Voltaire to their continuously expanding Cambridge Companions series. Professor Nicholas Cronk, Director of the Oxford Voltaire Foundation, has edited this collection of 14 essays by various academics in Europe and North America, supplemented with a chronology as well as a relatively succinct bibliography. Cronk provides a lively introduction to the writer and his legacy. In a later essay he discusses Voltaire's self‐promotion, his relations with publishers, readers, censors and his use of pseudonyms. Geoffrey Turnovsky (Washington) plots the development of Voltaire's reputation through his life. Subsequent essays include: Christiane Mervaud (Rouen) on Voltaire's vast correspondence; Miguel Benítez (Seville) on Voltaire's involvement with clandestine manuscripts; John Renwick (Edinburgh) on the politics of toleration; and Graham Gargett (Ulster) on Voltaire and the Bible.
Despite this companion's many merits, the use of the word comprehensive on the back cover is ambitious and indeed unrealistic. We should query how a 250 page book could be comprehensive regarding an author whose 1784‐1789 complete works ran to seventy volumes (the famous Kehl edition edited by Beaumarchais) and whose latest complete works published by the Oxford Voltaire Foundation will run to over 200 volumes. Voltaire was, and still is, a publishing industry in his own right. However, Voltaire was clearly a gifted self‐publicist and he might well have found this Cambridge Companion to be “admirable”.
The Cambridge Companion to Voltaire is a fascinating guide to one of the world's most influential authors and thinkers. It will help introduce new readers to Voltaire and encourage others to revisit him. One can only hope that this will facilitate the nurturing of new generations of Voltaire experts, including in Britain. It would be tragic if the British trend to increasingly focus teaching and research on the last hundred years of francophone culture ultimately compromised its long‐standing contribution to Voltaire studies. Today Voltaire is still relevant to French, British and international current affairs. His ideas on toleration, freedom of speech, justice and human rights can be seen at the heart of the debate on fanaticism and political and religious extremism. Cronk sums up Voltaire's contribution in the opening paragraph of his introduction when he cites Victor Hugo who said on the hundredth anniversary of Voltaire's death “Voltaire is more than a head of state, he is a head of ideas”.
