François-Marie Arouet, writing under the pseudonym Voltaire, was born in 1694 into a Parisian bourgeois family. Educated by Jesuits, he was an excellent pupil but one quickly enraged by dogma. An early rift with his father--who wished him to study law--led to his choice of letters as a career. Insinuating himself into court circles, he became notorious for lampoons on leading notables and was twice imprisoned in the Bastille. By his mid-thirties his literary activities precipitated a four-year exile in England where he won the praise of Swift and Pope for his political tracts. His publication, three years later in France, of Lettres philosophiques sur les Anglais (1733)--an attack on French Church and State--forced him to flee again. For twenty years Voltaire lived chiefly away from Paris. In this, his most prolific period, he wrote such satirical tales as "Zadig" (1747) and "Candide" (1759). His old age at Ferney, outside Geneva, was made bright by his adopted daughter, "Belle et Bonne," and marked by his intercessions in behalf of victims of political injustice. Sharp-witted and lean in his white wig, impatient with all appropriate rituals, he died in Paris in 1778--the foremost French author of his day.

• Zadig/L'IngénuIntroductionBiographical NoteZadigImprimaturEpistle Dedicatory from Sadi to the Sultana Sheraa1. Blind in One Eye2. The Nose3. The Dog and the Horse4. Green Eyes5. The Contest in Generosity6. The Minister7. Disputes and Audiences8. Jealousy9. The Beaten Woman10. Slavery11. The Funeral Pyre12. The Supper Party13. The Assignations14. The Brigand15. The Fisherman16. The Cockatrice17. The Tournament18. The Hermit19. The RiddlesL'Engénu(The Child of Nature)1. How the Prior of Our Lady of the Mountain and his sister met a Huron Indian2. The Child of Nature is recognized by his relatives3. The conversion of the Child of Nature4. The Child of Nature baptized5. The Child of Nature in love6. The Child of Nature rushes to his mistress and becomes enraged.7. The Child of Nature repels the English8. The Child of Nature goes to Court and on the way has supper with some Huguenots9. The arrival of the Child of Nature at Versailles, and his reception at Court10. The Child of Nature imprisoned in the Bastille with a Jansenist11. The Child of Nature develops his talents12. The Child of Nature's opinions on plays13. The lovely St Yves goes to Versailles14. The Child of Nature's intellectual progress15. The lovely St Yves resists certain delicate propositions16. She consults a Jesuit17. Her virtue her downfall18. She delivers her lover and a Jansenist19. The Child of Nature, the lovely St Yves, and their relatives are reunited20. The death of the lovely St Yves, and its consequences