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Difino
| • | Biography[HTTP ]Early yearsVoltaire was born in Paris as François Marie Arouet, to François Arouet and Marie-Marguerite Daumart or D'Aumard. Although he was the son of a notary and belonged to a middle-class family, later in life Voltaire sometimes implied that he came from a noble background.
Voltaire's mother died when he was seven years old. At age nine, he was sent to the Jesuit Collège Louis-le-Grand, and remained there until 1711. Though he derided the education he had received, it formed the basis of his considerable knowledge and probably kindled his lifelong devotion to theater.
When he graduated and returned home at the age of seventeen, Voltaire planned to start a career in writing, but his father opposed. He studied law, at least nominally, and later pretended to work in a Parisian lawyer's office but in fact began writing libelous poems. As a result, in 1714 his father sent him to stay for nearly a year in the country. Here he was still supposed to study law, but he instead devoted himself to literary essays and historical gossip.
Voltaire returned to Paris around the time of the death of Louis XIV. Again he became involved in high society, and showed Oedipe, his first play, to his acquaintances. Catering to theduchesse du Maine's frantic hatred of the regent, Philippe II of Orléans, Voltaire composed satire about him. A spy coaxed Voltaire into making a confession, and for insulting the regent, he was sent to the Bastille on May 16, 1717. Here he recast Oedipe, began the Henriade and decided to change his name.
He was released 11 months later when it was found out that he had been wrongly accused. Oedipe was performed at the Théâtre Français on November 18 and was well received. It had a run of forty-five nights and brought him both fame and wealth, with which Voltaire seems to have begun his long series of successful financial speculations.
After his release from the Bastille in April 1719, he was known as Arouet de Voltaire, or simply Voltaire, though legally he never abandoned his patronymic. The origin of the name has been much debated, and some suggest that it was an abbreviation of a childish nickname, "le petit volontaire". The most commonly accepted hypothesis, however, is that it is an anagram of the name "Arouet le jeune" or "Arouet l.j.", 'u' being changed to 'v' and 'j' to 'i' according to the ordinary convention.
Voltaire continued to write plays, completing Artemire in
Source: [wikipedia: voltaire, history]
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