“Voltaire! Voltaire! How gloriously this name rang throughout the 18th century!” He was praised to the skies, the most noble and wealthy people were proud to know him, Louis XV, Catherine the Great, Frederick II dreamed of attracting him to the court... Voltaire was a brilliant philosopher and writer, “the leader of public opinion” and “the subverter of authority.” He was loved and hated, admired and envied. He was twice imprisoned in the Bastille, left his homeland, driven by persecution. About the great Frenchman and his entourage, about the time in which this frantic genius lived and worked, and, first of all, about his role in the life of another brightest star of that time - Jean-Jacques Rousseau is told by the writer Guy Endor in his novel. It is being published in Russian for the first time.

Note. In the Russian edition of the book, from which the FB2 document was made, the translator and commentator made many mistakes. So, for example, the composers Piccini and Puccini, who lived a hundred years later than the events of the book, are confused, Choiseuil is written instead of Choiseul, Rousseau’s novel “Emile” is called “Emilie”, the name of the author of the book is “French” and written Guy Endor instead of Guy Endor, etc. I corrected these nonsenses as much as possible. In addition, the author himself, despite his brilliant talent, often cites, to put it mildly, dubious facts from the biographies of Voltaire and Rousseau and presents them tendentiously. We must not forget that the book was written by a Jew, and an American Jew at that. Amfortas