Books: The Sages of Cirey

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He was rich, not from his plays and histories but because he was a shrewd investor who "would rise from a sick-bed and travel across France, if he saw a good profit to be made." Château Cirey in Champagne was tumbledown; to restore it, Voltaire put his credit at the disposal of Emilie's husband—who, in turn, put his wife and Château at the disposal of Voltaire. History does not show a more foursquare example of the eternal triangle.

People came from all over Europe to stare at "the two philosophers.'' Said one visitor: "The voluptuous disorder which reigns in that house makes me regard it as a terrestrial paradise." The philosopher-lovers enlisted the whole village for amateur theatricals, went for picnics "followed by a second carriage full of books." Guests were regaled with readings from Voltaire's embattled works (especially La Pucelle, his scandalous extravaganza on Joan of Arc) and hastened back to Versailles to repeat everything they could remember.

Expensive Jester. Voltaire had been in the Bastille twice, and though the governor had made him quite comfortable, Voltaire had insisted that he must not be arrested again without plenty of notice. The court of Prussia's Frederick the Great was open to Voltaire as a refuge. But it consisted, says Author Mitford tartly, "of middle-class intellectuals, cosmopolitan Sodomites and Prussian soldiers"; moreover, jealous Emilie detested Frederick for trying to lure her lover to the Prussian court. Frederick's efforts to do so make some of the funniest sections of the book. Luckily for Emilie. monarch and mocker could not always hit it off—though Voltaire, in his way, was a just man and never wearied of saying "what a miracle [it was] that this son of a crowned ogre, brought up among animals, should have such a great love of French civilization." In long, nattering letters to the King, Voltaire compared Frederick to Marcus Aurelius, Horace, Hercules and Prometheus, among others; but he made savage fun of him behind his back. "As Court Jesters go, this one is expensive," said Frederick coldly. So Voltaire returned to Emilie—only to tell her that "he was now too old (forty-six) to make love."

In fact, Voltaire soon started a passionate affair with his niece, Mme. Denis, 32. He kept it so secret that it was only found out a few years ago. when a trove of his letters to her came to light. Both Voltaire and Emilie were getting temporarily bored with one another, but, as Voltaire explained, it was necessary for the sake of appearances to maintain one of France's most famous love affairs—otherwise, what would people say? And so the two philosophers remained close—until Emilie became pregnant, at the age of 42 (much too old, by the standards of her day), by the handsome Marquis de Saint-Lambert.