Random Fun Facts About Voltaire, Jon Stewart of 18th Century France (12 items)

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  (#7) He Scammed The Lottery And Made A Fortune

  In 1729, Voltaire's friend - the brilliant mathematician Charles Marie de La Condamine - came to Volatire with a get-rich-quick scheme that actually worked. Paris was holding lotteries in several districts throughout the city. La Condamine pointed out that the total price of all the tickets in each district was a lot less than the prize winnings. So the plan was simple: they joined forces with a small group of friends to buy up every last ticket in each district, winning every time. They did this over the course of several months, and Voltaire made millions.

  What did Voltaire do with all of his winnings? He did what any criminal mastermind would do - he participated in a whole host of business opportunities that would be considered "insider trading" by today's standards and exponentially increased his wealth.
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  (#8) He Was So Popular, He Was Literally Crowned For It

  By the end of his life, Voltaire had become a bona fide international rockstar - a status helped in no small part by his reputation as an intellectual badboy who defied convention. He straddled many different worlds, taking up correspondences with royals, political theorists, scientists, and actors and actress. He even came to be known as the "Innkeeper of Europe," since everybody who was anyone stopped at Voltaire's estate at Ferney to pay their respect to a towering legend - his guests included Edward Gibbon, Casanova, and James Boswell. 

  In 1778, Voltaire came to Paris to see the premiere of his new play Irene. Parisians rapturously welcomed him home - on the day after he arrived, more than 300 people stopped by to see him and give their warm regards. On March 30, 1778, at the premiere of Irene, Voltaire was literally crowned in his theater box before his enthusiastic audience.
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  (#9) He Was Wildly Contradictory In His Views On Religious And Racial Tolerance

  Voltaire gained fame for his passionate defense of religious tolerance. Yet, scholars claim that Voltaire looked at other religions with a degree of cultural superiority. He joked negatively about Jews and even viewed Islam as a barbaric religion. 

  Voltaire, like many in the Enlightenment, was a critic of slavery throughout European empires. Hover, his disgust of slavery didn't mean that he thought all men and women were on equal footing - he was also racist who traded in anti-black racial stereotypes in his writings. 
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  (#4) He Counted Catherine The Great Among His Many Fangirls

  Voltaire maintained strings of correspondence with some of the most important figures of 18th-century Europe - letters passed between Voltaire and Rousseau, Frederick the Great, and even Madame du Barry, the chief royal mistress of Louis XV. 

  Perhaps none was as fascinating as his correspondence with Catherine the Great of Russia. Catherine had a sharp mind and was fascinated with the Enlightenment, like many rulers in the 18th century. From 1768 to 1777, the Empress of Russia exchanged around 26 letters with the French philosopher. 

  For his part, Voltaire praised Catherine routinely, and it seems as if he had a little bit of a crush on her. He even teased her that he was "jilted" by her attachment to Diderot, another French philosopher. Not only did he curiously commend his "Star of the North" on her autocratic style, he actually had a portrait of her hanging in front of his bed. 
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  (#2) He Was A Man Of Many Love Affairs, Including One With His Own Niece

  Voltaire - notorious for his passionate and scandalous love affairs - once fell head over heels for a young widow. Notably, this bereaved lass also happened to be his niece, Marie Louise Denis (née Mignot). Madame Denis was the daughter of Voltaire's older sister, Catherine. She was pretty, full of life, and bright, even harboring her own writerly ambitions. Voltaire claimed a not-so-platonic love for the young woman - he even wrote amorous letters to her in Italian, so that prying servants could not be privy to his physical attraction to her. Their romance lasted for decades. Denis even moved in with Voltaire, serving as his housekeeper and companion. Whether or not their love was ever consummated, it's clear from his letters that Voltaire wanted it to be.
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  (#11) He Lived With His Lover AND Her Husband In A Grand Château

  Though he never married, Voltaire had many lovers throughout his life. Perhaps the most productive was his affair with Émilie du Châtelet - and she was already married to someone else. She was a brilliant woman of the Enlightenment herself, as she supported women's education and was gifted in mathematics, science, and even literature. Among her accomplishments was a translation of Sir Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica. 

  Voltaire's affair with du Châtelet began in 1733, and he remained devoted to her for 16 years. Her husband was a French marquis, and Voltaire often stayed at the château Cirey-Sur-Blaise, where he and du Châtelet maintained their physical and intellectual affair.

  His love affair with Madame du Châtelet did not have a happy ending, however. In 1748, she began an affair with a young poet, who abandoned a pregnant du Châtelet by 1749. She turned to Voltaire in her moment of crisis, and he even helped woo her old husband back into her marriage bed so that the child would appear legitimate. But it was all for nothing - du Châtelet died soon after giving birth to a daughter, and the baby followed. 

  The death of Émilie du Châtelet was one of the great tragedies of Voltaire's life.

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