biography
pronunciation:
[deederoh]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1713–84)
|
| biography:
| Writer and philosopher, born in Langres, NE France. Trained by the Jesuits, he became a tutor and bookseller's hack (1733–44), before beginning as a writer. Always controversial, his Pensées philosophiques (1746, Philosophical Thoughts) was burned by the Parliament of Paris for its anti-Christian ideas, and he was imprisoned for his Lettre sur les aveugles (1749, trans Essay on Blindness). For 20 years he worked tirelessly as editor of an expanded French version of Chambers's Cyclopaedia (1751–76), known as the Encyclopédie, a major work of the age of the Enlightenment. A prolific and versatile writer, he published novels, plays, satires, essays, and letters. |
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