Oration on Voltaire

Victor Hugo's 1878 address honoring Voltaire is itself a masterwork of French oratory, and this collection preserves it alongside critical essays that illuminate why the occasion mattered. The oration was delivered at the unveiling of Voltaire's statue in Paris, a moment that marked the philosopher's formal reconciliation with the nation that had exiled him. Hugo's words elevate tribute into poetry, celebrating Voltaire's lifelong war against religious intolerance and judicial cruelty while acknowledging the contradictions of a man who championed reason yet benefited from the very systems he criticized. The accompanying essays situate this speech within larger debates about Voltaire's legacy and the role of the intellectual in public life. For readers interested in French literature, the history of free thought, or the art of political oratory, this volume offers both a historic document and a meditation on how nations remember their thinkers.