As we read in the Candide footnotes, Voltaire seemed to be super fond of being in jail because he went there…a lot. In fact, he claimed that he was fine with going to the Bastille because it “gave him time to think.” Okay, Voltaire.
(Really, his rebellious phase started to become glaringly obvious after he finished school. His dad REALLY wanted him to become a lawyer, but by that time, it was too late—Voltaire had decided to become a writer. So the obvious solution was to go to Paris, pretend to work for a notary, and actually spend his time writing. Needless to say, Dad was not happy, and quickly shipped him off to Normandy and then to the Netherlands. Sadly, Voltaire had to come back home because he was caught having an affair with a French Protestant refugee.)
Voltaire was imprisoned not once, but TWICE, for “disrespecting” the aristocracy. The first time was 1717-1718, for eleven months, because he’d been writing satiric verses about the aristocracy. He may or may not have accused the Regent (a member of the royal family) of incest with his own daughter. Okay, there’s really no “may or may not” about it, Voltaire definitely did that and definitely got punished for it.
The second time, a nobleman made fun of Voltaire’s name change. Voltaire caustically retorted that he would bring glory to the name Voltaire, while the nobleman only brought disgrace to his. Ouch. The nobleman hired some thugs to beat Voltaire up, Voltaire challenged the nobleman to a duel, and then…Voltaire was going to be imprisoned again—without a trial. I guess Voltaire decided he actually didn’t like jail so much after all, because he instead went into exile in Great Britain.
Exile wasn’t the end of Voltaire’s journeys and troublesome times, but I thought I’d share the backstory of just why Voltaire went to prison.
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