Voltaire's repartee continued to bring him trouble, however. Oedipe's success began Voltaire's influence and brought him into the French Enlightenment. While there, he wrote his debut play, Oedipe, and adopted the name Voltaire. One of his writings, about Louis XV's regent, Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, led to his being imprisoned in the Bastille. Voltaire's wit made him popular among some of the aristocratic families. Nevertheless, he continued to write, producing essays and historical studies not always noted for their accuracy. When his father found him out, he again sent Voltaire to study law, this time in the provinces. Voltaire, pretending to work in Paris as assistant to a lawyer, spent much of his time writing satirical poetry. His father, however, intended his son to be educated in the law. In his early twenties he spent eleven months in the Bastille for writing satirical verses about the aristocracy.Īfter graduating, Voltaire set out on a career in literature. These activities were to result in numerous imprisonments and exiles. From the beginning Voltaire had trouble with the authorities for his energetic attacks on the government and the Catholic Church. Most of Voltaire's early life revolved around Paris until his exile. Before devoting himself entirely to writing, Voltaire worked as a secretary to the French ambassador in Holland. Voltaire was educated by Jesuits at the Collège Louis-le-Grand (1704-11), where he learned Latin and Greek later in life he became fluent in Italian, Spanish and English. Bust of Voltaire by the artist Antoine Houdon, 1781.įrançois-Marie Arouet de Voltaire was born in Paris in 1694, the son of François Arouet, a notary who was a minor treasury official, and his wife, Marie Marguerite d'Aumart, from a noble family of the Poitou.

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