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WRITER

Voltaire

1694 - 1778

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François-Marie Arouet (French: [fʁɑ̃swa maʁi aʁwɛ]; 21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), known by his nom de plume M. de Voltaire (; also US: ; French: [vɔltɛːʁ]), was a French Enlightenment writer, philosopher (philosophe), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit and his criticism of Christianity (especially of the Roman Catholic Church) and of slavery, Voltaire was an advocate of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a versatile and prolific writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, histories, but also scientific expositions. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Voltaire has received more than 10,887,462 page views. His biography is available in 155 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 152 in 2019). Voltaire is the 8th most popular writer, the 7th most popular biography from France (down from 6th in 2019) and the most popular French Writer.

Voltaire is most famous for his wit and satire, as well as for his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state.

Memorability Metrics

  • 11M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 87.55

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 155

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 13.46

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.64

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Page views of Voltaires by language


Among WRITERS

Among writers, Voltaire ranks 8 out of 5,755. Before him are William Shakespeare, Dante Alighieri, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Fyodor Dostoevsky, J. R. R. Tolkien, and Hans Christian Andersen. After him are Edgar Allan Poe, Sophocles, Leo Tolstoy, Franz Kafka, Victor Hugo, and Virgil.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1694, Voltaire ranks 1. After him are François Quesnay, Yeongjo of Joseon, Francis Hutcheson, Charlotte Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Leonardo Leo, Louis-Claude Daquin, Paul of the Cross, Georg Brandt, Hermann Samuel Reimarus, Theodore of Corsica, and Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield. Among people deceased in 1778, Voltaire ranks 2. Before him is Jean-Jacques Rousseau. After him are Carl Linnaeus, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Anna Maria Mozart, Laura Bassi, James Hargreaves, Louis Victor, Prince of Carignano, Thomas Arne, Étienne-Gabriel Morelly, William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, and Alvise Giovanni Mocenigo.

Others Born in 1694

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Others Deceased in 1778

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In France

Among people born in France, Voltaire ranks 7 out of 6,011. Before him are Napoleon (1769), Louis XIV of France (1638), René Descartes (1596), Joan of Arc (1412), Blaise Pascal (1623), and Louis Pasteur (1822). After him are Victor Hugo (1802), Claude Monet (1840), Montesquieu (1689), Louis XVI of France (1754), Jules Verne (1828), and Jean-Paul Sartre (1905).

Others born in France

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Among WRITERS In France

Among writers born in France, Voltaire ranks 1. After him are Victor Hugo (1802), Jules Verne (1828), Jean-Paul Sartre (1905), Molière (1622), Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900), Honoré de Balzac (1799), Alexandre Dumas (1802), Marcel Proust (1871), Denis Diderot (1713), Simone de Beauvoir (1908), and Octave Mirbeau (1848).

French born Writers

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