K. Van Strien – författare

This book documents what newspapers, literary journals and private individuals in Holland wrote about Voltaire between 1746 and 1778. Like elsewhere in Europe, he was admired for his literary genius but detested by orthodox Christians for his disrespect of revealed religion. In this book these views are represented by Gerard Roos, the translator of Zadig, Socrate and L’Homme aux 40 écus, and the reverend Petrus Hofstede. For Jean Rousset de Missy, the editor of Voltariana and Les Mensonges imprimés, Voltaire was also a selfish cheat who did not keep his promises to publishers. In L’Epilogueur moderne Rousset frequently attacked him in connection with Abrégé de l’histoire universelle by Jean Neaulme. Among the documents discovered while working on this book are the letter Voltaire wrote to the grand pensionary of Holland after the public burning of his Dictionnaire philosophique, and a second review of Oeuvres de Maupertuis. The book concludes with a bibliography of Voltaire translations into Dutch, many of them published in literary journals.