The History of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia

by Voltaire

Downloads: Under 100
Pages: 226

Read PDF online Download Save

About this book

The History of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia carries the name of Voltaire, and describes itself as from the French of Voltaire, by Smollett. The contents list a description of Russia and a continuation of it covering population, finances, armies and customs. The text describes the Zaporavian Cossacks as much the same as freebooters living upon rapine.

The text speaks of a powerful conqueror and law-giver publicly sharing his bed and his throne with a stranger and a captive who had nothing to recommend her but her merit. The narrator says he is under an obligation to relate what he has met touching this marriage in the dispatches of count Bassewitz, aulic counsellor at Vienna. The text says that people groaned under the oppression of the Swedes, before the beginning of this present war.

About the author

Voltaire

Voltaire (1694-1778), pen name of Francois-Marie Arouet, was a French Enlightenment writer, philosopher, and polemicist. Celebrated for his wit and his campaigns against tyranny and religious intolerance, he produced plays, histories, essays, and tales, of which Candide remains the most widely read.