ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Voltaire was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state.

Detailed explanation-2: -Like other key Enlightenment thinkers, Voltaire was a deist.

Detailed explanation-3: -Voltaire believed above all in the efficacy of reason. He believed social progress could be achieved through reason and that no authority-religious or political or otherwise-should be immune to challenge by reason. He emphasized in his work the importance of tolerance, especially religious tolerance.

Detailed explanation-4: -Voltaire only began to identify himself with philosophy and the philosophe identity during middle age. His work Lettres philosophiques, published in 1734 when he was forty years old, was the key turning point in this transformation.

Detailed explanation-5: -Voltaire was a versatile and prolific writer. In his lifetime he published numerous works, including books, plays, poems, and polemics. His most famous works included the fictitious Lettres philosophiques (1734) and the satirical novel Candide (1759).