Even from childhood, Voltaire was an extremely talented but controversial poet, and he continued to write and develop these ideas as he grew older. His first play, Oedipe, opened in Paris with extreme success, and he became regarded as a leader in French literature.
Some lines that were particularly offensive to high-ranking officials were responsible for Voltaire's exile and later imprisonment in 1717. Again, in 1726, he engaged in a dispute with a very influential aristocrat, which later got him exiled from France once more. Voltaire's revolutionary ideas and his unwillingness to censor them gave him a bad name throughout France, but the opposition he faced only strengthened his opinions of injustice.
He went to England after being banished from France, where his ideas were praised, he earned money, and learned to read and write in English. Here, he also absorbed English thought.
When Voltaire returned to France in 1729, he wrote 24 letters to a friend which were published. These concerned the problem of unfairness in all aspects of life. He called for methods of living like those of Locke, Francis Bacon, and Newton; he wrote of using intellect to further social progress. "It has taken centuries to do justice to humanity," he wrote, "to feel it was horrible that the many should sow and few should reap." He later published many anti-religious pieces in the 1750s to 1760s. Voltaire was a major thinker of the Enlightenment, and his works were responsible for influencing many. (Other Source)
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