Voltaire (Ben Acker)

Salutations, my fellow citizens who have at last surpassed the oppression of the French government. My name is François-Marie Arouet, but as many of you know me, I am the most grand of all the philosophes. I am Voltaire. The date of my birth is the 21st of November, 1694. My father was a lawyer who was a minor treasury official, whilst my mother was from a noble family out of the French province of Poitou. As a child, my studies taught me Latin and Greek. Later on, I became fluent in English, Italian, and Spanish. Against my father's wishes and through the influence of the Enlightenment era I lived during, I became a varying author, writing poems, essays, and historical studies. As a writer, I strove to expose the abuses of French nobility and the government towards my fellow peasants. Armed with a pen and my biting wit, I targeted corrupt officials and idle aristocrats to gain equality and justice for the Third Estate. Despite my attempts, I was imprisoned by the French government and the Catholic Church, eventually leading to exile from the country.