Amazing Writers: B2

In 1735, I was given permission to return to Paris but I rather liked living in Lorraine and I decided to stay there. I had made a lot of money from some clever investments in banking and being rich gave me the opportunity to spend my time exactly as I wanted. Because of Émilie’s interest in literature and science, we collected over 21,000 books. She worked hard on translating many scientific books from English to French and also read many books on philosophy and mathematics. We spent much time discussing philosophical and scientific theories, sometimes disagreeing. In 1738, with Émilie’s help, I published a book called Elements of the Philosophy of Newton which helped to make his theories of gravity known to people outside the world of science.

In 1742, I was sent by King Louis XV to Prussia on a secret trip to encourage the new king – Frederick II – to fight on the side of France in the War of the Austrian Succession. This was a series of wars lasting from 1740 until 1748 that began with the death of Charles VI, who was the Holy Roman Emperor. The wars were to decide who should take his place, as many royal figures thought they had the right to do so. Before Frederick had become king, he had read and enjoyed some of my work. He started writing to me and we became friends. I was successful in persuading him to fight on the side of France, and King Louis XV, who had never liked me personally, decided he would give me his attention once more. I was welcomed back into the elite social circles in France. From science, I turned my interest to history and, in 1745, King Louis XV made me the Royal Historiographer of France. A year later, I was elected to the French Academy. This institution had been set up in 1634 by Cardinal de Richelieu, who was the chief advisor of King Louis XIII, to protect the quality of literature and language.

In 1750, I was feeling unwelcome in Paris and disappointed with my life. Émilie had died the year before and I was terribly upset. Some of my recent plays had not been popular and although I was generally accepted in the royal court, there were very many people there who did not like me and certainly did not trust me. I had always found it difficult to keep my opinions to myself and I was constantly in trouble for having said or written tactless or cruel things about famous aristocrats or members of the Church. When my friend Frederick II invited me to go to his court in Potsdam near Berlin to be his official poet and philosopher, I accepted.

In the beginning things went well for me there. I wrote The Age of Louis XIV in 1751 and then the following year a short story called Micromegas was published. But then I began to quarrel with a man called Maupertuis who was President of the Scientific Academy in Berlin. I thought he was ridiculous and stupid and I wrote a long article about him which, although funny, was also really quite offensive. Frederick was furious with me and forbade me from ever coming to Berlin again. I left Prussia on 26

March 1753 and by the time I was nearing Paris, news of Frederick’s anger had reached King Louis XV. He did not allow me to enter the city of Paris so I had to make other plans.

In 1754, I went to Geneva in Switzerland where I bought a large estate called Les Délices and I continued writing and producing plays. I met Jean-Jacques Rousseau who was a political philosopher and a composer, whose ideas later had great influence. However, Rousseau and I started to have serious philosophical disagreements. A recommendation by him that theatre was completely unnecessary and even harmful was partly responsible for theatrical performances being banned in Geneva and, without the theatre, I felt there was no reason for me to stay. In addition, in my usual satirical way, I had made the Swiss feel uneasy. By 1758, it was time for me to leave.

I moved back to France to a village called Ferney, which was close to the border with Switzerland. I bought a large house and land where I entertained many important, influential people who came to watch my plays. I also supported local industry so that the ordinary people of Ferney, who had no civil rights, could work and make a living. I wanted to help the local community in any way I could. Naturally, I experienced opposition from the local aristocracy, who thought I was causing trouble by behaving like a revolutionary. Later on, after the French Revolution, the ordinary people of Ferney changed the name of the village to Ferney-Voltaire and a statue of me with the words ‘Patriarch of Ferney’ was built.

I stayed in Ferney for 20 years and because of the work I wrote and published during this time people began to see me differently. In 1759, I published a short story called Candide, which became my most famous book. As well as writing professionally, I enjoyed writing letters and I wrote to a great many people. One of them was Catherine II – Catherine the Great – of Russia. I also started writing again to my old friend, Frederick II, who had, by this time, forgiven me. In addition to Candide, I also published many other books including the popular philosophical work Dictionnaire Philosophique, in 1764. This was followed by L’Ingénu in 1767 and Questions sur l’Encyclopédie which was published in nine books between 1770 and 1772.

When I was 83 years old, I decided to return to Paris. The year was 1778. My latest play, a tragedy called Irène was going to be performed and I wanted to be present for the rehearsals and preparation. On the day after I arrived in Paris, more than 300 people came to my house to visit me. Three months later, on 30

May, I died peacefully in my sleep. It appears that after being away for 28 years I had come back as a popular man – some people even called me a hero.

The Life of Voltaire

Charlotte Brontë (#u3529d009-3c21-5c3a-bde8-c0c3de083bab)

1816–1855

the woman who wrote Jane Eyre

Writing stories was a way to escape from the ugly, sad, miserable moments in life. Even though much of my work was based on my life experiences and included those difficult parts of it, my novels were also based on my dreams of love and happiness.

I was born on 21

April 1816 in the village of Thornton, in West Yorkshire, England. I had four sisters – two were older than me and two were younger and I had a brother who was born a year after I was. My father, Patrick, was an Anglican vicar and my mother, Maria Branwell, was kept busy looking after her family. When I was 4 years old, we moved to a village not far away called Haworth, where my father had been given the position of curate at the village church. My mother had been unwell for some time and a year later, she died. We were looked after by her sister, who we called Aunt Branwell but whose name was Elizabeth.

My father, who was still very upset by my mother’s death, had difficulty coping with us all. In 1824, he sent me and three of my sisters – Maria, Elizabeth and Emily – to a school, the Clergy Daughters School, that was for daughters of Anglican church employees. Maria, who was 10 years old, and Elizabeth, at the age of 9, went there first in July. Then, in September, my father sent me and Emily. I was 8 and Emily was only 6 years old. My other sister, Anne, and my brother, Branwell, stayed at home.

The school was in a village called Cowan Bridge in the neighbouring county of Lancashire. None of the girls’ parents had to pay for their daughters to go to this school – all the expenses were paid by the church – and for this reason, we were called Charity Children by the teachers and the other people who worked there. It was horrible and made us feel ashamed and stupid. We were all given a special ugly uniform to wear and every time we left the school, to go to church for example, it showed that we were Church Charity Children.

Life at the school was unpleasant and difficult. When we arrived, winter was approaching and as it got colder and colder, we suffered. We slept all together in one large room where there was no heating. In the morning when we got up, we had to wash in cold water – on the really cold mornings, and there were many of them, we had to break the ice that had formed overnight in the bowls of water. Our uniforms were not adequate for the cold weather and the damp that was everywhere reached through to our bones and froze us. On Sundays after we got up, we had to say prayers for an hour and a half. Then we had to go to church. The church was five kilometres away and we had to walk there and back in all weathers. Our thin clothes gave us no protection against the cold, wind, rain and snow. We were always cold and we never stopped being hungry, as we were never given enough food. The food that they did give us was of poor quality and it often made us sick.