Reference has been made to various works by Voltaire, giving an indication of his breadth. Indeed one must turn to a Lope de Vega or a Daniel Defoe to find as prolific a writer. It is now desirable to provide a short survey of the works. They are properly described as "vast and various" by Saintsbury and may be easily classified as to type.
First are the tragedies and comedies, some fifty to sixty in all. As has been indicated Voltaire was a dramatist early and late, beginning his literary career with a tragedy and ending it with one. Nanine has been called his best comedy although, curiously enough, this man with such a superior wit was not too well at home in this genre. Zaïre (1732) and Mérope (1741) have been placed among the superior plays of the entire Classical School in France.
The second grouping is that of the non-dramatic poems. He was an indefatigable writer in this area. It will suffice to note three here. First is the heroic epic L'Henriade, an ambitious work modeled after Virgil's Aeneid and written in alexandrine couplets. Next is the scandalous but often amusing La Pucelle (surreptitiously printed in 1755; first authorized edition, 1755); this is actually a burlesque attacking the reputation of Joan of Arc. It was one of the several works (including Candide) the authorship of which Voltaire for a time denied. The third poem that deserves notice, particularly because of its close relationship to Candide, is Désastre de Lisbon, published in 1756, the year following the terrifying earthquake. It is true that Voltaire lacked what may be called the true passion, but his verse is memorable for technical virtuosity and superior diction — and quite often for superior wit.
