Voltaire

Voltaire (1694–1778), born François-Marie Arouet, launched a lifelong, successful playwriting career in 1718, interrupted by imprisonment in the Bastille. Upon a second imprisonment, in which he adopted the pen name Voltaire, he was released after agreeing to move to London. There he wrote Lettres philosophiques, which galvanized French reform and satirized the religious teachings of René Descartes and Blaise Pascal. After his release, he purchased a chateau in Geneva, where he wrote Candide, among other works. To avoid Calvinist persecution, he moved across the border to Ferney, France, where he lived as a wealthy man for 18 years until his death.