The Huron, Voltaire

Although not among the most widely studied fictional works by Voltaire, L'Ingénu is nonetheless one of his most accomplished masterpieces. Borrowing from the techniques of the tale through its verve and brevity of writing, it is a condensed representation of 18th-century novelistic art. A work of maturity, L'Ingénu mobilizes major Voltairian themes, giving reason and justice unexpected faces such as those of a young Huron and a beautiful Breton woman, victims of arbitrary power. The prestissimo rhythm of this narrative, where fiction masks the pamphlet-like mood, cannot fail to win the reader over to the cause of tolerance, the only answer to the obsessive antagonism of good and evil.