VOLTAIRE, François Marie Arouet de.

Memoirs of the Life of Voltaire. Written by Himself. Translated from the French.

London, G. Robinson, 1784. 8vo, pp. [4] title, ii, 225, [1] blank;a clean copy in contemporary roan, spine ruled gilt with contrasting morocco label, upper joint cracked, cords holding, spine ends worn, but still a decent copy; with the ownership inscription of David Garrett to the fly-leaf. First edition in English, originally published in French in the same year. Another English edition saw publication in Dublin in the same year. Voltaire’s Mémoires were published six years after his death and were immediately translated into English. Charting Voltaire’s life from his meeting Madame du Châtelet onwards, much of the work is devoted to exposing the gap between the progressive ideals of Frederick the Great, Enlightenment monarch par excellence, and the often brutal reality of his kingdom. ‘The memoirs really are written by Voltaire, and must, soon or late, become public. This Voltaire is a sort of malignant spirit, who came upon the earth only to embitter the cup of life, and afterwards laugh at our wry faces’ (Introduction).See Bengesco 1642 for the original French edition.

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