Voltaire: A Biography of the Man and His Century (Orieux)

[cahn]

5/5. [Adapted from a salon comment.] This may be my favorite biography I've ever read (to be fair, that's not a super long list... but still). It dates from 1966 (English translation 1979) but is still a classic and I can see why. It was SO GOOD and near the end I could feel myself drawing it out a little so I wouldn't have to finish reading it and not have any more left. Orieux really gets that what I want out of history is well-thought-out-and-well-analyzed-and-well-sourced gossipy sensationalism delivered in anecdotal bite-sized chunks, but still with overriding themes. And boy was Voltaire's life basically tailor-made to deliver that -- but Orieux also leaned into it for all it was worth. And he has got this dry sense of humor that is evident on every page and just hilarious.

I really loved how Orieux makes Voltaire come alive as someone who had so SO many faults (SO MANY, lol, Voltaire was a champ at both holding grudges and not letting things go, and there were just innumerable places where Orieux was all "...and here's yet another example where ANY ACTUAL GROWNUP would have LET IT GO, but did Voltaire? I will give you one guess.") but also at the same time so many amazing virtues, many of which were in some sense part and parcel with his flaws: the Voltaire who Could Not Let Things Go is the same Voltaire of the Calas affair.

I highly encourage you to read selenak's description of L'affaire Calas (scroll to near the end) -- and really her whole very excellent review of Orieux, which goes into much more detail that this one and which convinced me to read it -- but briefly, the Calas family was wrongfully accused and convicted of killing their own son/brother, and Jean Calas (the father) was tortured to death. Voltaire decided to investigate, found evidence that the Calas family was innocent, and Would Not Let It Go until the verdict was overturned-- and Orieux points out that this was a huge deal because before this judges had been the last word, and there was no recourse if there was a wrong verdict.

It did kind of make me wish that we got more biographies these days that were written as literature (the writing is excellent, and also kudos to the translator for keeping the excellence of the writing and that dry wit) and where the biographers weren't afraid to have overt opinions. Orieux has Decided Opinions about everything and is not shy about owning it (and usually has evidence, though selenak did find a couple of sloppy bits in her review, but I'm finding that's waaaay better than most biographies), and it is GREAT.

I must also say that it is a pretty long book (even though the English version is abridged -- the French/German version is 1000 pages! The English version is only ~500) and though I was riveted almost the entire time, there were bits where Orieux goes on about various visitors Voltaire had (especially in his later years) where I was, okay, kinda bored :) But generally speaking I adored this book.

Comments

[luzula]

Thank you! Since the information seems difficult to get, maybe I can get away with having her be temporary head of the family, then, since that is what suits my plot needs. : )

[mildred_of_midgard]

I'm supposed to be on salon hiatus, so this is the best I can do for you: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3788815?seq=1. A hundred years too early, but probably still relevant (but note what Selena said about the law being different in each region--Voltaire has a famous quip about changing laws as often as you change horses as you travel through France). But it matches what my gut instinct response to your question was: "Legally, yes; in practice, providing the men in her life cooperate."

[luzula]

Thank you, that is tremendously helpful! : )

[iberiandoctor]

Yeah, I only really know from post-1789 and the Napoleonic code, but it seems non-aristo women could hold property and also vote in certain regions under the Ancien Régime: this article suggests women did so the Aquitaine, Champagne, Toulouse and the Flanders regions, with respect to feudal custom’s succession rules.

Further Ancien Régime refs for this period re a widow's legal capacity to hold her late spouse's property and run his business: (from this article on the interesting succession case of Baudon (re: succession to matrimonial assets):
Melish, Jacob, “The Power of Wives: Managing Money and Men in the Family Businesses of Old Regime Paris,” in Women and Work in Eighteenth-Century France, ed. Hafter, Daryl M. and Kushner, Nina (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2007); see also Jane McLeod, “Printer Widows and the State in Eighteenth-Century France,” in Women and Work, 113–29.

(Sidebar: on the latter ref, it seems widows were particularly active in the French printing business! See wiki and refs.)

Further material on succession and property in aristo marriage contracts and regional customary laws: this very Paris-centric article circa 1500s to early 1700s.

[luzula]

Thank you so much, I will check these out! : )

My character is in Bordeaux, but I guess I am open to fudging the laws of that particular place, since I probably can't get hold of them in the first place... Her husband is a merchant shipping wine to Scotland (or I guess smuggling, from the perspective of the British state), who married her for her family connections there, since her parents were Scottish Jacobite refugees from 1715.

[mildred_of_midgard]

cahn's blog, where all the historical research happens. :D

[iberiandoctor]

lolz, French history, and in particular French legal history, is my jam! I might have bought a French law textbook in English for Les Mis research purposes, but it mostly focuses on the Napoleonic Code and the origins of the code civile.