VOLTAIRE (François-Marie Arouet, dit) [Paris,... - Lot 202 - Varenne Enchères

Lot 202
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VOLTAIRE (François-Marie Arouet, dit) [Paris,... - Lot 202 - Varenne Enchères
VOLTAIRE (François-Marie Arouet, dit) [Paris, 1694 - id., 1778], French writer. Autograph letter, signed "Voltaire", addressed to Georg Conrad Walther, bookseller-publisher. Lunéville November 19, 1748; 2 1/2 pages in-4°. Voltaire will return in 1748 to Lunéville, at the request of his mistress and will be well received by Stanislas, whom he already knows. If Émilie du Châtelet is still working on Newton's theories, Voltaire is a bit tired. He devoted himself mainly to the theater and had his plays performed on the castle stage. "I have finally been sent, Sir, the end of the eighth volume and the preface of M. Marmontel which is at the head of the Henriade, but I have not received the preface which must be put at the front of the edition, and which was sent to you almost a year ago. I beg you to put it in the package addressed to M. Allyot, councillor at Lunéville in Lorraine. He is waiting for it. I saw a letter you wrote to a man of mine in which you tell him that you want to send me a Saxon porcelain set. I am very grateful for such attention and I thank you very sincerely. I see that you do not have the feelings of a Dutch bookseller, and your procedure renews again my desire to be useful to you. I am sending you the history of the present war, which I will have completed in a few months. But at the same time I declare to you that I absolutely do not want you to do for me the expense of a porcelain service. I beg you very seriously not to send it to me. I will be happy to receive a few copies of your edition, that is enough and if you send me anything else I warn you that I will send you back your present. You have spent enough on your edition. Once again, copies are all I need and all I want. I have written to you through the French ambassador, I confirm everything in this letter, and I ask you to add to the eighth volume the small pieces that I have sent you. I suppose that you have had an errata made of volumes seven and eight. I have not been able to work on it myself because I have not yet seen these volumes. You will certainly have Semiramis but I cannot tell you when. I flatter myself that you will one day be able to make a more complete and correct edition and I will help you with all my might, but as yours with all its faults is certainly the best, or rather the only good one we have, I advise you and I beg you to advertise it in all the newspapers as the only true edition in Europe of all my works, and the only one I approve of. All yours with all my heart Voltaire." The letter is listed in Theodore Besterman's edition as D3809.
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