The recent removal of the word “charabanc” from the Collins dictionary (see http://blog.dictionary.com/obsolete-words/) sent me on a reverie that included the lexicological demise of so many other vehicles from the past. Oh, we will never lose “chariot” or “stagecoach” or even “buggy” for they are firmly entrenched in literature. But…
Continue Reading →Des aspects de ses impressions des Provinces-Unies tirés de ses cinq voyages | par Dr. Robert Vitale Au moment où je me suis décidé à préparer mon rapport sur le thème de Voltaire et la Hollande je n’avais aucune ideé de comment m’y prendre, ayant pensé que, comme thème, il était…
Continue Reading →It is at this moment, February 10, 1778, that professor Roy Luna begins his novel Lord of Reason, describing the resounding day of glory when the people of Paris welcome back their philosopher-hero, thronging around him and declaring him the defender of the downtrodden, the advocate of the suppressed, the annihilator of tyranny. But Voltaire happens to fall into a household where brilliant—and strange—things were happening.
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