Voltaire's History of Charles XII King of Sweden

Voltaire's History of Charles XII King of Sweden By Voltaire INTRODUCTION THE "Life of Charles XII" that Mr. John Burns once bought for a penny in the New Cut an incident in itself historical if one looks at it in the right way--was, he writes to say, an English version of Voltaire's book. The "Histoire de Charles XII, Roi de Suede," was first published at Rouen in 1731, first freely translated into English by Alexander Henderson in 1734, and soon afterwards reduced into a chap-book, which made the King a proverbial hero in English fairs and market places. There have been other translations since Henderson's, and it is now retranslated by Miss Todhunter with a closer correspondence than his to Voltaire's original. The book may claim a particular right to an English hearing, apart from the main interest of its subject. It was in England that the life of Charles XII was written by Voltaire, when he was on a visit of exigency there after the Rohan escapade and his second Bastille