Historical figure · Pearson Edexcel International GCSE revision on Incandio

Voltaire

Portrait of Voltaire

Philosophe · Voice of the Enlightenment · Writer & Philosopher · 1694–1778

The Enlightenment's sharpest wit — satirist, playwright, and the most feared pen in 18th-century Europe.

Why Voltaire is on Incandio

Incandio is a free revision platform for the Pearson Edexcel International GCSE. Its historical figures are the people a student learns from, questions and — where a specification topic is theirs — defends an idea against. Voltaire can be questioned here in a dramatised, historically grounded portrayal, and the five-chapter life below is written to be read alongside the course.

Explore the life of Voltaire — five chapters

  1. The Notary's Son Who Renamed Himself — Jesuit schooling, satire and the Bastille
  2. England, Newton and the Château at Cirey — Learning science from a mathematician he lived with
  3. Candide and the Earthquake — A disaster that broke a philosophy
  4. The Calas Affair — Inventing the public campaign for justice
  5. Triumph in Paris, and the Awkward Record — A quotation he never wrote, and prejudices he did

Read the five-chapter life of Voltaire →

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