Letters on England

Voltaire left France, reached London in August, 1726, went as guest to the house of a rich merchant at Wandsworth, and remained three years in this country, from the age of thirty-two to the age of thirty-five. He was here when George I. died, and George II. became king. He published here his Henriade. He wrote here his 'History of Charles XII.' He read 'Gulliver's Travels' as a new book, and might have been present at the first night of The Beggar's Opera. He was here whet Sir Isaac Newton died.In 1731 he published at Rouen the Lettres sur les Anglais, which appeared in England in 1733 in the volume from which they are here reprinted.H.M.