L’Écriture est la peinture de la voix

Book excerpt: L’Écriture est la peinture de la voix honours and celebrates the inestimable contributions that Professor Nicholas Cronk has made to our understanding of the Enlightenment. As director of the University of Oxford’s Voltaire Foundation, he has played a decisive role in eighteenth-century studies. In particular he has shaped our knowledge of Voltaire as a writer, celebrity and era-defining figure whose influence has continued to be felt through the centuries. Comprising essays by a host of internationally eminent scholars, this volume is a fitting tribute to the esteem and affection in which Nicholas Cronk is held as a colleague, teacher and mentor. These sixteen essays reflect his varied research interests, exploring questions central to the eighteenth century, such as the writing process, justice, revolution, as well as the legacy of the Enlightenment, and focussing on the central figure in Nicholas Cronk’s research: Voltaire. In sections devoted to Voltaire’s writing practices, to his involvement in political, literary and religious polemics, and finally to his legacy, the essays build on Nicholas Cronk’s scholarship and editorial achievements, opening up a new chapter in research on Voltaire. This volume is complemented by an online collection of essays which speak to other topics central to Nicholas Cronk’s interests, such as authorial identities, correspondence and aesthetics. Visit the MLO site for the other half of this festschrift project, https://modernlanguagesopen.org/collections/lecriture-nicholas-cronk