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Article: The infamous philosophe.(Book Review)
- Article from:
- New Criterion
- Article date:
- December 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Foundation for Cultural Review. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Roger Pearson Voltaire Almighty: A Life in Pursuit of Freedom. Bloomsbury, 480 pages, $35
In the spring of 1761, an aging Francois-Marie Arouet (a.k.a. Voltaire) took it upon himself to rebuild the small parish church that stood on his sprawling estate at Ferney. The self-proclaimed Deist, mocker of the Biblical storyline, and indefatigable critic of ecclesiastical abuses spared little expense in this latest--and most curious--project of reform and reformation. In place of the old facade, he erected a new one in the modern neoclassical style, with two handsome bell towers, each capped with a gleaming dome. Over the altar, he installed a baldachino as well as an ...