Voltaire’s Reception in Ireland

Abstract

To assess the impact of an author like Voltaire on Ireland and the Irish over a whole century is a complex task, so omnipresent was his influence, as Chapter 2 has already indicated. In order to gain as valid an impression as possible, two main approaches will be followed in this chapter. The first is to analyse the publication of his works. Even the briefest glance at the list of the French books published in Ireland over the period 1700–1800, either in translation or in the original French (Appendix 2), will demonstrate Voltaire’s contribution to the intellectual life of the country. With almost 70 printings, he stands out as by far the century’s most popular French author and, as far as can be established, his saleability also surpassed that of Corneille, Racine and Molière, the major writers of France’s grand siècle or classic age of literature in the seventeenth century.¹