Arouet

1777 · ST20535-04 — La Haye The Hague but Geneva: Aux dépens des Libraries 1777. FIRST EDITION. 215 x 140 mm. 8 1/2 x 5 1/2". 1 p.l. 303 3 pp. <br/> Publisher's marbled paper wrappers flat spine edges untrimmed. A Large Paper Copy. Benesco 1860. Andrew R. Morehouse "The Voltaire Collection in the Rare Book Room" The Yale Library Gazette 17 no. 4 1943 p. 75.<br /> Paper wrappers a bit faded as expected slightly defective at corners and a little curled otherwise and perhaps even so A VERY FINE COPY--the text within immense margins entirely clean fresh and bright.<br/> <br/> This is a remarkable survival in its original wrappers of a work related to one of the most resonating controversies of Voltaire's life and writings--the question of his anti-Semitism. A giant of the Enlightenment and one of the greatest of French writers and philosophers Voltaire real name François-Marie Arouet 1694-1778 writes here in response to "Lettres de quelques Juifs portugais allemands et polonais à M. de Voltaire" a 1776 critique by Antoine Guénée objecting to the anti-Semitism especially as expressed within a commercial context in our author's "Dictionnaire Philosophique." Deeply philosophical and leavened with satire the 120 chapters of the seminal "Dictionnaire" were widely read much condemned and not infrequently burned as they challenged religious authority advocated for toleration and dealt with many social and political issues from an uncomfortable Enlightenment perspective. And there can be no doubt that Voltaire's "Dictionnaire" does in fact contain critical remarks about the Jews; at the same time the author's criticism is extended with equal warmth to organized religion in other forms. In the present response to Guénée Voltaire is nothing if not scathing which in the end works against him. As Voltaire scholar Andrew R. Morehouse wryly puts it the text here expands upon Voltaire's previous points in such a way as to "justify the accusation that he is cruelly anti-Semitic." This work is not exactly rare but it is very unusual to find it in original wrappers as here particularly in such fine condition. Aux dépens des Libraries unknown