During much of his life Voltaire's plays and verse made him the toast of society, but his barbed wit and commitment to reason also got him into trouble. Jailed twice and eventually banished by the King, he was an outspoken critic of religious intolerance and persecution. His personal life was as colourful as his intellectual one. Voltaire never married, but had long-term affairs with two women: Emilie, who died after giving birth to the child of another lover, and his niece, Marie-Louise, with whom he spent his last twenty-five years. With its tales of illegitimacy, prison, stardom, exile, love affairs and tireless battles against critics, Church and King, Roger Pearson's brilliant biography brings Voltaire vividly to life.

Voltaire Almighty provides a lively look at the life and thought of one of the major forces behind European Enlightenment. A rebel from start to finish (1694-1778), Voltaire was an ailing and unwanted bastard child who refused to die; and when he did consent to expire some eighty-four years later, he secured a Christian burial despite a bishop's ban. During much of his life Voltaire was the toast of society for his plays and verse, but his barbed wit and commitment to human reason got him into trouble. Jailed twice and eventually banished by the king, he was an outspoken critic of religious intolerance and persecution. His personal life was as colorful as his intellectual life. Of independent means and mind, Voltaire never married, but he had long-term affairs with two women: Emilie, who died after giving birth to the child of another lover, and his niece, Marie-Louise, with whom he spent the last twenty-five years of his life. The consummate outsider; a dissenter who craved acceptance while flamboyantly disdaining it; author of countless stories, poems, books, plays, treatises, and tracts as well as some twenty thousand letters to his friends: Voltaire lived a long, active life that makes for engaging and entertaining reading.

"Voltaire's personal life was as colorful as his intellectual life. Of independent means and mind, he never married, but he had long-term affairs with two women: The first was Emilie Chatelet, his intellectual equal. A renowned scientist married to a French bureaucrat, she died while giving birth to yet another man's child. The second, Mary Louise Denis, his niece, twenty years his junior, remained with her esteemed uncle for the last two decades of his life." "The consummate outsider, a dissenter who craved acceptance while flamboyantly disdaining it, author of countless stories, poems, books, plays, treatises, and tracts as well as some twenty thousand letters to his friends: Voltaire had a long and active life, all for the cause of freedom - his own and others'."--BOOK JACKET.

What do you do when you're granted Gods power for a whole year—no strings attached—by an urbane, bald-headed heavenly mes­senger named Chet? That's the question facing Charlie Wiggins, the hapless car salesman who chronicles his run-in with omnipotence in the outrageous, wickedly funny Almighty Me. Author Robert Bausch aims his inspired social satire at men and women, love and marriage, and he hits the comic mark full center. Endearing and dark, side-splitting and thought-provoking, Almighty Me probes the nature of our earthly perplex­ities as it celebrates the loving and fallible human heart. Charlie Wiggins is not very different from you and me. To do good in the world is his first inclination, but doing good is harder than it looks, because Charlie can't seem to focus on anything but his own crumbling marriage. With the power of God, it’s easy enough to make himself the star salesman at the deal­ership, or to cure his boss's embarrassing speech problem, or even to bring his mother-in-law back from the dead. But to turn his adored wife, Dorothy, away from her determined quest for independence? That's where this befuddled acting deity dis­covers that omnipotence has its limitations. "In the face of that conscious choice to strive for what she needed,' my 'power' seemed helpless. Either it was not adequate—and God's power is tremendously overrated—or women have unbelievable strength, and even God pales in the face of a woman's will." Only a guided tour of heaven convinces Charlie that it’s time to deal with the world at large. To his horror, he learns the chilling answer to his question "Why me?" and decides to confront his cosmic responsibilities. When he does, both Dorothy and God himself are in for a big surprise.

Reprint of the fourth edition, which contains an additional text attributed to Voltaire. Originally published anonymously in 1764, Dei Delitti e Delle Pene was the first systematic study of the principles of crime and punishment. Infused with the spirit of the Enlightenment, its advocacy of crime prevention and the abolition of torture and capital punishment marked a significant advance in criminological thought, which had changed little since the Middle Ages. It had a profound influence on the development of criminal law in Europe and the United States.