Editing Voltaire (section)

== Early life ==
François-Marie Arouet was born in Paris, the youngest of the five children of François Arouet, a lawyer who was a minor treasury official, and his wife, Marie Marguerite Daumard, whose family was on the lowest rank of the [[French nobility]].{{sfn|Pearson|2005|pp=9–14}} Some speculation surrounds Voltaire's date of birth, because he claimed he was born on 20 February 1694 as the illegitimate son of a nobleman, Guérin de Rochebrune or Roquebrune.{{sfn|Pearson|2005|p=9}} Two of his older brothers—Armand-François and Robert—died in infancy, and his surviving brother Armand and sister Marguerite-Catherine were nine and seven years older, respectively.{{sfn|Pearson|2005|p=10}} Nicknamed "Zozo" by his family, Voltaire was baptized on 22 November 1694, with {{interlanguage link|François de Châteauneuf|fr|lt=François de Castagnère, abbé de Châteauneuf}}, and Marie Daumard, the wife of his mother's cousin, standing as godparents.{{sfn|Pearson|2005|p=12}} He was educated by the [[Jesuits]] at the [[Collège Louis-le-Grand]] (1704–1711), where he was taught [[Latin]], theology, and rhetoric;{{sfn|Pearson|2005|pp=24–25}} later in life he became fluent in Italian, Spanish, and English.<ref>{{cite web |last=Liukkonen |first=Petri |title=Voltaire |url=http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/voltaire.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150217150230/http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/voltaire.htm |archive-date=17 February 2015 |website=Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi) |publisher=[[Kuusankoski]] Public Library |location=Finland}}</ref>

By the time he left school, Voltaire had decided he wanted to be a writer, against the wishes of his father, who wanted him to become a lawyer.{{sfn|Pearson|2005|pp=32–33}} Voltaire, pretending to work in Paris as an assistant to a notary, spent much of his time writing poetry. When his father found out, he sent Voltaire to study law, this time in [[Caen]], Normandy. But the young man continued to write, producing essays and historical studies. Voltaire's wit made him popular among some of the aristocratic families with whom he mixed. In 1713, his father obtained a job for him as a secretary to the new French ambassador in the Netherlands, the {{interlanguage link|Pierre-Antoine de Châteauneuf|fr|lt=marquis de Châteauneuf}}, the brother of Voltaire's godfather.{{sfn|Pearson|2005|p=36}} At [[The Hague]], Voltaire fell in love with a [[Huguenot|French Protestant]] refugee named Catherine Olympe Dunoyer (known as 'Pimpette').{{sfn|Pearson|2005|p=36}} Their affair, considered scandalous, was discovered by de Châteauneuf and Voltaire was forced to return to France by the end of the year.{{sfn|Pearson|2005|pp=36–37}}

[[File:Bastille 1715.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Voltaire was imprisoned in the [[Bastille]] from 16 May 1717 to 15 April 1718 in a windowless cell with ten-foot-thick walls.{{sfn|Pearson|2005|pp=43, 45}}]]

Most of Voltaire's early life revolved around Paris. From early on, Voltaire had trouble with the authorities for critiques of the government. As a result, he was twice sentenced to prison and once to temporary exile to England. One satirical verse, in which Voltaire accused the [[Philippe II, Duke of Orléans|Régent]] of incest with his daughter, resulted in an eleven-month imprisonment in the [[Bastille]].<ref>Fitzpatrick, Martin (2000). "Toleration and the Enlightenment Movement" in Grell/Porter, ''Toleration in Enlightenment Europe'', p. 64, footnote 91, Cambridge University Press</ref> The ''[[Comédie-Française]]'' had agreed in January 1717 to stage his debut play, ''[[Oedipe (play)|Œdipe]]'', and it opened in mid-November 1718, seven months after his release.{{sfn|Pearson|2005|pp=49–50}} Its immediate critical and financial success established his reputation.{{sfn|Pearson|2005|pp=50–52}} Both the Régent and King [[George I of Great Britain]] presented Voltaire with medals as a mark of their appreciation.{{sfn|Pearson|2005|p=52}}

Voltaire mainly argued for religious tolerance and freedom of thought. He campaigned to eradicate priestly and aristo-monarchical authority, and supported a constitutional monarchy that protects people's rights.<ref name="Shank" /><ref>Marvin Perry et al. (2015), ''Western Civilization: Ideas, Politics, and Society'', Volume II, {{ISBN|978-1-305-09142-9}}, p. 427</ref>

=== Name ===
Arouet adopted the name Voltaire in 1718, following his incarceration at the Bastille. Its origin is unclear. It is an [[anagram]] of ''AROVET LI'', the Latinized spelling of his surname, Arouet, and the initial letters of {{lang|fr|le jeune}} ("the young").<ref>{{Cite book |last=Christopher Thacker |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D5s9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA3 |title=Voltaire |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=1971 |isbn=978-0-7100-7020-3 |page=3}}</ref> According to a family tradition among the descendants of his sister, he was known as {{lang|fr|le petit volontaire}} ("determined little thing") as a child, and he resurrected a variant of the name in his adult life.{{sfn|Pearson|2005|p=17}} The name also [[Verlan|reverses the syllables]] of [[Airvault]], his family's home town in the [[Poitou]] region.{{sfn|Pearson|2005|p=24}}

[[Richard Holmes (biographer)|Richard Holmes]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Holmes, Richard |title=Sidetracks: Explorations of a Romantic Biographer |publisher=HarperCollins |year=2000 |pages=345–66}} and "Voltaire's Grin" in ''New York Review of Books'', 30 November 1995, pp. 49–55</ref> supports the anagrammatic derivation of the name, but adds that a writer such as Voltaire would have intended it to also convey connotations of speed and daring. These come from associations with words such as {{lang|fr|[[Equestrian vaulting|voltige]]}} (acrobatics on a trapeze or horse), ''volte-face'' (a spinning about to face one's enemies), and ''volatile'' (originally, any winged creature). "Arouet" was not a noble name fit for his growing reputation, especially given that name's resonance with {{lang|fr|à rouer}} ("to be beaten up") and {{lang|fr|roué}} (a ''débauché'').

In a letter to [[Jean-Baptiste Rousseau]] in March 1719, Voltaire concludes by asking that, if Rousseau wishes to send him a return letter, he do so by addressing it to Monsieur de Voltaire. A postscript explains: "{{lang|fr|J'ai été si malheureux sous le nom d'Arouet que j'en ai pris un autre surtout pour n'être plus confondu avec le poète Roi}}", ("I was so unhappy under the name of Arouet that I have taken another, primarily so as to cease to be confused with the poet Roi.")<ref>[http://www.e-enlightenment.com/item/voltfrVF0850079_1key001cor – "Voltaire to Jean Baptiste Rousseau, c. 1 March 1719"]. Electronic Enlightenment. Ed. Robert McNamee et al. Vers. 2.1. University of Oxford. 2010. Web. 20 June 2010.</ref> This probably refers to [[Adenes le Roi]], and the 'oi' diphthong was then pronounced like modern 'ouai', so the similarity to 'Arouet' is clear, and thus, it could well have been part of his rationale. Voltaire is known also to have used at least 178 separate pen names during his lifetime.<ref>{{Cite book |last=results |first=search |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofpseu00room |title=A Dictionary of Pseudonyms and Their Origins, with Stories of Name Changes, 3rd Edition |year= 1998 |publisher=Mcfarland & Co Inc Pub |isbn=0-7864-0423-X |url-access=registration}}</ref>