A VISIT FROM VOLTAIRE by DINAH LEE KUNG

A most admirable way of introducing historical characters to todays reader in an educational , entertaining , easily accessible is in the form an anecdotal quasi-fictional narrative. 

It has been done to great effect in theatre plays like Alan Bennetts "The Habit of Art" and Novels from Tolstoy to Solzhenitsyn to Kundera which explore meetings of real life characters who could have met , or if they did meet we do not know what was said.

Any work of this nature has to be done with a surprising amount of responsibility , delicacy, integral dexterity and true to the nature of the subjects long term vision.

To her great credit Dinah Lee Kung passes all these vital and necessary benchmarks.Capturing the humour of everyday humdrum slapstick , and also imparting some truths about Voltaire a casual reader would be all the better to know.

The response of the readers in this non-academic readers forum gives a touching overview of how successful the author is in making Voltaire come to life in a three dimensional easy to approach manner.

For example we are made aware on page 94 Voltaire was a munitions dealer - " war profiteer" which is not known to the general reader , though should be known if they are to evaluate the Man who is synonymous with the chimes of Enlightenment.

To his credit  on page 344 he has this sage universal advice for Mankind internal and external .."If a man has tyrants , he must dethrone them."

Another issue to know about Voltaire is a charge of Anti-Semitism  , alas not an unusual charge with the great and good of European Enlightment Philosophy.

Again , to his credit , he has this quote attributed to him from a 1763 essay."It does not require great art, or magnificently trained eloquence, to prove that Christians should tolerate each other. I, however, am going further: I say that we should regard all men as our brothers. What? The Turk my brother? The Chinaman my brother? The Jew? The Siam? Yes, without doubt; are we not all children of the same father and creatures of the same God?"