Episode 2

Overview

Under public pressure, Voltaire’s imprisonment was commuted to exile. In 1726, he therefore landed in London, where he made a series of discoveries that would change his life. But while he philosophized and wrote the English Letters, at the risk of grave danger, Voltaire returned to Paris to see Adrienne Lecouvreur. Hunted by the police, he went back to London disguised as an old man. He did not return until four years later, in 1730, when the exile was lifted.