A Visit from Voltaire

by Dinah Lee Küng

You can't keep a good man down . . . even when he's dead! When an American mother and ex-journalist is overwhelmed by her new Swiss home, a visitor pops out of nowhere offering to relieve her son's asthma, her husband's distracted absence and her problems grappling with village life. Is he the village crackpot or - as he claims - the Greatest Mind of the Eighteenth Century? This talkative character in kneebreeches and a powdered wig is the last straw. Though she begs him to disappear, he unpacks his moldy trunk and a lifetime of stories instead. Slowly "V." becomes her stalwart best friend as they laugh, bicker and he teaches her the best lesson of how to live life to its fullest.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Humor, Book Club, Christmas, Historical

360 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Küng worked for twenty years as a reporter in Asia for The Economist, BusinessWeek, the International Herald Tribune and the Washington Post. The author of six novels and a number of plays, Küng lives in Switzerland.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dinah Lee Küng brings Voltaire to life in her uproariously delightful novel, A Visit From Voltaire. It should not go without saying; this novel was long listed for the Orange Prize in Fiction in 2004, a nomination well deserved. The tale begins with an exhausted mother, truly is there another kind, yet in all seriousness she, her Swiss husband Peter and their three children have relocated from Manhattan to the small Swiss town of St-Cergue where absolutely nothing has gone as planned. The contractors are over-budget, the narrator's husband Peter tends toward laissez faire attitude toward life, the children are ill and there is the schooling to think of, to top all of that off many of the belongings that were supposed to have arrived did not. What does appear one evening is a dapper man dressed in 18th century attire, a M. François Marie Arouet, Seigneur de Tournay et Ferney also known as V. The stressed out narrator has concluded she has lost her mind and is not all so certain it is a bad thing to have happened. V makes a most formidable friend to this outsider who misses her country, all that is familiar and who desperately needs to learn French, or at least have a translator. The characters are extremely likeable, the novel is brilliantly detailed and one cannot help but become engrossed in A Visit From Voltaire. V, along with our narrator, helps bring to light serious social injustices as well as the more mundane, yet equally important issues of parenting and family life. Dinah Lee Küng's novel makes for a delightful, witty and enlightening read.

[Tracy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I finished it because I kept waiting for it to make sense. Why did the ghost of Voltaire suddenly appear to this modern woman? Was there a purpose? When would the big reveal come? Well, I never did quite understand. I also couldn't understand how he materialized with his full wardrobe and all of his material possessions. Or how did he travel with his modern friend on a modern airplane from Switzerland to London? And how exactly did his ghostly valise go right along with her checked baggage on the plane? I know it's fiction, and I know I had to give up some claim to realism in order to accept that there's a ghost being seen by and conversing with this woman, but I still need some of it to make some kind of sense. And I really need to know why he's there in the first place ???

[Alex Brett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful. A true tribute to joie de vivre, and will please any cosmopolitan soul trying to find solace from the boredom of provincial life. The figure of Voltaire is presented not as a dry text-book figure but is resurrected as the witty and unstoppable man he should be remembered as. As the narrator sifts through her own experiences, ranging from the intriguing to the alarmingly incongruous, Voltaire offers the best advice one can have ultimately: to hack and slash away at the pomposity of institutions and at our own self-importance in order to appreciate the comedic value of life and as a result to focus on those few things which give meaning to it.

[Liz Mutkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really enjoyable book with the quirky ghost of Voltaire providing much needed company for an American journalist ill at ease in her new home in rural Switzerland. Funny and touching, also a great way to learn a lot about a wonderful figure from history.

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here is what I sent to the author today: "15 minutes ago I finished A Visit From Voltaire, & I want to tell you how ecstatic I feel & felt from reading this book. It is very moving & poignant, filled with wise insights, yet also the funniest book I have ever read. I want to fly to Geneva & salaam to you!!"

[Sina & Ilona Glimmerfee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Von New York in ein kleines Schweizer Dörfchen zu ziehen, ist auch für Dinah ein riesiger Schritt. Sie, die zwanzig Jahre in Hongkong als Journalistin gelebt hat, Skandale aufdeckte und sich für die Menschenrechte eingesetzt hat, ist jetzt auch noch vom Großstadtleben mit all ihren Bekannten abgeschnitten. Die Umbauten des Hauses verschlingen das ganze Geld, die Handwerker machen was sie wollen und als zwei ihrer Kinder erkranken, ist sie eigentlich vom Landleben kuriert. Da erscheint am Bett ihres Sohnes Theo ein sonderbarer junger Arzt, der als Heilmittel gegen Asthma Limonade empfiehlt. Empört stellt sie schnell fest, dass nur sie in der Lage ist, ihn zu sehen und zu hören. Der Geist stellt sich als Voltaire heraus, der es sich schnell bei ihr gemütlich macht und ab da steigt der Kaffeekonsum gewaltig.

Dieses Buch wird noch eine Zeitlang bei mir nachwirken, denn nach Beendigung der Lektüre, ist es ein wenig so, als wäre Monsieur Voltaire auch bei mir zu Gast gewesen.

Dieses Buch bzw. Voltaire, hat mir einige Gedankenanstöße gegeben und brachte mich an manchen Stellen zum Schmunzeln. Ich mochte besonders die Stelle, an denen Voltaire anhand von Heidi, E.T und Star Wars, Dinah erklärt, dass Hollywood gerne biblischen Geschichten adaptiert. Das Buch ist keineswegs trocken, vermittelt aber trotzdem sehr viel Wissen über das Leben von Voltaire. Ich muss gestehen, bis zum Lesens dieses Romans, war mir Voltaire eher ein vager Begriff – Das wird sich jetzt ändern, denn Dinah Lee King hat es geschafft mich neugierig auf diesen faszinierenden Mann zu machen.
Da dieses Buch wie eine Autobiographie der Autorin wirkt, sind die Charaktere glaubhaft und sehr bildlich dargestellt. Wer dieses Buch lesen möchte, muss sich auf einige Rückblenden aus ihrer Zeit als Korrespondentin in China gefasst machen, was ich persönlich als sehr schade empfinde, da es mich mehr interessiert hätte, wie sie sich letztlich in der Dorfidylle einlebt. Voltaire gab ihr genügend Gedankenanstöße ihre innere Pompadour wieder zu erwecken und einzusehen, dass man auch von ihrem Standort durchaus noch etwas bewegen kann. Anstatt nach Vorne zu sehen oder in der Gegenwart zu leben, trauert die Autorin mir viel zu sehr ihrem alten, aufregendem Leben nach und schafft es nicht dieses loszulassen.
Es war aber nicht nur die Beziehung von Dinah und Voltaire, die mir gefiel sondern auch die Nebenhandlungen, wie z.B. die ihrer Freundin aus Afrika, die nach einem Schicksalsschlag neuen Lebensmut finden muss.
Dieses Buch ist sicherlich kein Pageturner. Wer Action und einen wirklichen Spannungsbogen erwartet, wird sicherlich enttäuscht. Hier geht es um das Innenleben der Personen, welches in Dialogen und Anekdoten aus dem Leben der Protagonisten dargestellt wird.

Positiv
- Ein Buch das nachwirkt
- Manche Passagen sind sehr amüsant
- Es regt zum Nachdenken an
- Charaktere sehr bildhaft und glaubhaft
- Man erfährt viel über Voltaire und benötigt nicht unbedingt Vorkenntnisse
- Ich habe Lust bekommen mich mit Voltaire zu beschäftigen
Auch die Nebenhandlungen gefielen mir

Neutral
- Die Autorin hat viel von ihrem eigenen Leben einfließen lassen
- Das Buch beinhaltet sehr viele Dialoge
- Es ist kein aufregendes Buch mit großem Spannungsbogen

Negativ
- Es waren mir zu viele Rückblicke auf ihr Leben in China


Fazit: Es ist kein aufregendes Buch, aber mit Sicherheit gehört es zu denen, die noch eine Weile nachklingen.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book wasn't a really easy read although I am not sure if it was because I had the flu or the amount of times I re read or went back to work out who Voltaire was talking about. It wasn't actually a page turner for me but a very interesting and easy way to get to know Voltaire. AND I loved him what a character he must have been. I alway just thought of him as a Philosopher but this book really makes him so much more interesting and it is impossible not to become a bit of a voyeur reading this book.
Dinah Lee Küng brings Voltaire to life in her interesting and joyful novel that was also long listed for the Orange Prize in Fiction in 2004.
An American women and her Swiss husband move from Manhattan to conservative Swiss town of St-Cergue where they start renovating a house that she is left in charge of handling. The usual night mares in renovating occurs and she has to deal with the school from hell. One night a doctor is called for one of the children. The doctor arrives dressed in 18th century attire, a M. François Marie Arouet, Seigneur de Tournay et Ferney also known as V. V becomes the light and confusion this outsider desperately needs in her new upside down world. The characters are likeable, the novel is filled with details that Chris Cross the century's that bring to light social injustices and the mundane life of parenting and family life. I found the book lively and engrossing sometimes difficult to read but on the whole it was a fun adventure filled with oodles of descriptions and the charming funny Character Voltaire.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful romp of a book, and easily the most superbly written (and readable!) historical figure I've seen in a long time. Kung's Voltaire brims with the charm, intellect, and vivacity that makes him such a joy to get to know in history. The narrative was unpredictable, the thoughts were fresh and fascinating, and the anecdotes were intriguing. As someone very familiar with the era, it was clear that Kung did her homework.

I'd gladly recommend this to anyone who loves history, and even those who don't! In this novel, Kung encompasses perfectly the living aspect of the past that causes so many to fall in love with it.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up in the library and found it very entertaining. Living as an American expat in England I could relate to many of her situations in the book (which I'm sure are based on many of her actual experiences) and found myself wishing for my own intellectual ghost to keep me company and give such guidance! The only criticism really is that I did find it a bit slow in the middle which I have also read in a previous review, but it is a light read overall, and that did not hinder my enjoyment of the book.

[Kathrine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this, I thought Voltaire was excellently portrayed and it was very funny.

[Adam Stevenson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Visit from Voltaire is a book that makes absolutely no sense. The cover proclaims it a novel but it seems to be anything but. If the blurb is to believed, it’s about an American woman who moves to Switzerland with her family and finds it difficult to acclimatise to the new culture, she’s helped along the way by a man who turns up, claiming to be Voltaire. The blurb is not to be believed.


For a start, the main character and her family may be fictionalised but they are not fictional. The husband in the book is the author’s husband, with the same name and job; the children are her children and the main character is the author herself. If anything, it seems more like diary extracts of her move and the feeling of alienation she has with Wikipedia articles of Voltaire dropped in. I couldn’t find a description of how this book came about but I imagined that she’d moved to Switzerland, felt cut off from her old role as a foreign reporter in Hong Kong and trapped by the Swiss expectations of motherhood which led her to reading a life of Voltaire, creating imaginary conversations with him as she performed her daily chores. What’s more, a detail at the beginning, where her mother’s books on history were sent to her rather than her own was, I think, the secret catalyst that sparked her interest in Voltaire.

Not only does my little supposition seem to fit, it’s the only reason I can think of that the character that follows her around is Voltaire rather than anyone else, there is no answer to the question, ‘why Voltaire?’ It’s doesn’t even adopt the playful notion that the person coming around her house is a person from the village who thinks he’s Voltaire but is straight up Voltaire’s ghost who simply pops up, much as an imaginary Voltaire might to a bored woman wandering about her cut-off Swiss house.

There’s not a plot to the book exactly, the book goes through Voltaire’s life chronologically, with the ghost ageing as it continues. In each chapter, Voltaire’s life throws up some theme in which the daily Swiss life or in her memories of being a reporter in Hong Kong are awkwardly made to reflect. Early in his life, Voltaire was put in prison, so her son accidentally commits a crime and is hard in front of the town council. At another time Voltaire uncovered a scandal, so she remembers uncovering a scandal during her reporter days. Voltaire spent some time in England, so the main character suddenly has some English friends she has to visit. The book never makes a convincing case that Voltaire’s memories of the eighteenth century, the memories of 90s China and the modern experience in Switzerland ever match up convincingly. The whole book creaks with contrivance.

I can’t say I liked the narrating character very much. Compared with Voltaire, her spirit seemed so petty and she never seemed to learn much. There was a definite whiff of racism; from her broad grouping national stereotypes (even in places she’d lived), to her distaste of Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and other non-Christian winter festivals and her seeming hatred of the Swiss as conservative and small-minded. She didn’t seem a great mother, seeming rather uninterested in her children and finding them a hinderance to her own interests, resenting her daughter for fitting in more successfully than her and the odd thing that she made them only watch old videos - leading to her children playing ‘I, Claudius’ for fun. (Really - why be so strict about what they watch that they only have access to pre-approved things and then giving them something as adult at that?)

The part which solidified my dislike for the narrator was a chapter themed around Voltaire’s time in the French court under the patronage of Madame de Pompadour. The narrator declares her own marriage as a bit tired and Voltaire agrees it is a little ‘sombre’, suggesting that she liven things up with a party the way Madame de Pompadour used to. The two proceed to plan a party, he in his royal eighteenth century opulence, she toning him down. Already the party is not being held for honest social reasons but to liven up her sex-life, the guests she invites are not really her friends (and if they are, why does she have such rude friends?) and the gathering has no real connection. Because the people in the party all seem like they’d rather not be with each other, it feels like an episode of ‘Come Dine With Me’ where everything relies on the food and entertainment rather than the enjoyment of company. It summed the narrator up for me, obsessing over the details and missing the main point.

I found most of her friendships hard to believe in, either coming about because they were useful to her work or because they had access to someone who might be useful. In a chapter that was supposed to be sad, a friend of hers comes over to Switzerland to recuperate after a car accident that has caused her to lose an arm and an eye. Maybe it’s the Brit in me, but it seemed completely strange that neither of them made pirate jokes - it didn’t feel like real friendship at all.

Yet - as much as the book seemed like a strange bashing together of elements that didn’t work, I peculiarly liked it. The real Voltaire was an interesting person, with an interesting life and even this slightly weak-sauce ghost version of him made interesting company. Also, while her relationships with her family and her supposed friends didn’t ring very true (or if true, not very warm), the relationship with the Voltaire ghost was peculiarly charming. My own fantasised origin story for this book, that the author imagined her own Voltaire when she was wandering about at home, comes from my own experiences of internally talking to an imaginary Samuel Johnson when I’m doing my own boring chores. Through this, I saw a vulnerability in the narrator that got me to like her and feel for her, lost in the Swiss winter.

At the end of the book, she and Voltaire take a visit to his last home where a ‘well fed college girl’ gives a tour of his house. She knows all the facts of his life but none of the flavour. I finished reading this book in a Dr Johnson’s House, a museum where I (myself rather well fed) talk to people about Samuel Johnson. It got me thinking about how much my own discussion of him is related to my imaginings of what he’d be like if he saw the world now. Ultimately, I concluded that both my imaginary Samuel Johnson and the Samuel Johnson of facts are not the historical one and it’s impossible to get to know him - this book concluded that the narrator knew Voltaire better than anyone else ever could. I’m done with this book.

[Rick Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has to be one of the best imaginary friend stories ever. I laughed often and occasionally loud. I frequently read cleverly worded passages to my writer wife. I wanted to know what happens next with these two people born two centuries apart. Before this book, I was only vaguely aware of Voltaire and nothing of why he was important. After this book, I felt like I knew him as a friend - eccentric, to be sure, but what ghost isn't? That it was set in Switzerland, in a village I have visited a number of times, made it intriguing enough to order. I'm now determined to learn more about the writer/philosopher who championed freedom of speech and freedom of religion (against staunch opposition from the Catholic church!) and who fought, with his pen, for justice for the wronged of his generation. A bit of a rogue? Makes him all the more lovable.

[S · Rating 3 out of 5]

I might have enjoyed this book more if I knew much about Voltaire or his philosophy. I couldn’t compare this witty ‘V’ character with the real Voltaire so the book lost its appeal halfway through. I did, however, find the storyline very creative.

[Rebecca Hemphill · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was kind of rough.
Just not interesting.
It was like the author just told stories about herself to some dead guy and he threw in his 2 cents worth and was dramatic, but none of it made sense. There really wasn't a plot.

[Joanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here's a thoughtful review from book blogger Tariq Kataria. He sums up this book very well:
http://tariqkataria3.blogspot.ch/2013...
"A most admirable way of introducing historical characters to todays reader in an educational , entertaining , easily accessible is in the form an anecdotal quasi-fictional narrative.

It has been done to great effect in theatre plays like Alan Bennetts "The Habit of Art" and Novels from Tolstoy to Solzhenitsyn to Kundera which explore meetings of real life characters who could have met , or if they did meet we do not know what was said.

Any work of this nature has to be done with a surprising amount of responsibility , delicacy, integral dexterity and true to the nature of the subjects long term vision.

To her great credit Dinah Lee Kung passes all these vital and necessary benchmarks.Capturing the humour of everyday humdrum slapstick , and also imparting some truths about Voltaire a casual reader would be all the better to know.

The response of the readers in this non-academic readers forum gives a touching overview of how successful the author is in making Voltaire come to life in a three dimensional easy to approach manner.

For example we are made aware on page 94 Voltaire was a munitions dealer - " war profiteer" which is not known to the general reader , though should be known if they are to evaluate the Man who is synonymous with the chimes of Enlightenment.

To his credit on page 344 he has this sage universal advice for Mankind internal and external .."If a man has tyrants , he must dethrone them."

Another issue to know about Voltaire is a charge of Anti-Semitism , alas not an unusual charge with the great and good of European Enlightment Philosophy.

Again , to his credit , he has this quote attributed to him from a 1763 essay."It does not require great art, or magnificently trained eloquence, to prove that Christians should tolerate each other. I, however, am going further: I say that we should regard all men as our brothers. What? The Turk my brother? The Chinaman my brother? The Jew? The Siam? Yes, without doubt; are we not all children of the same father and creatures of the same God?"

[Herbabbado · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful, but a book that's hard to categorize, as it's part memoir in the voice of the great Voltaire himself, and part memoir by the narrator who has to put up with his ghost, part fiction and part rigorous historical research. It all makes for an original and suprisingly comical two-hander set against the landscape of a small Swiss village.

I can understand why the Orange Prize for Fiction committee singled it out, and why its readership grows with time. Although the author is American, she’s best known in England and Switzerland and that’s where I learned about this book.

The story could be read as a light family sit-com romp, or a clash between two centuries, or just two stubborn personalities—one a real diva star of the eighteenth century salon set and the other a struggling journalist settling her young family into a foreign home.

But underneath all the comedy, (and the Christmas/New Year's Eve Party is a real set piece,) there lies a tenderness and a humanity that leaves you with a glow.

Maybe Voltaire travelled forward in time because he couldn't stand the boredom of eternity compared to his celebrity times, or he travelled to her home to help her through a difficult winter. Either way, after spending time with him as he copes with the modern world (rather well, actually, thanks to her coffee machine!) and she learns to let go of her past, you feel cheered yourself. Certain things don't change for any of us, money problems, love disappointments, home disruptions—but friendship and kindness endure.

Slow in the middle, so I took off one star, but worth sticking with.
btw, Here’s a feature about the author from the English-language Swiss News that was done some years ago:

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/A+passi...

[Jane Seaford · Rating 1 out of 5]

I took this book from the library as I once lived in Ferney-Voltaire (where Voltaire once lived) and also knew the area where it was set. And because it was long listed for the Orange prize. It started well... but I was soon bored. And wondered what the point of most of it was. The author can write. But that's the only positive thing I can say about it. It's as if she'd had the idea and then had to do a lot of padding in order to tell a story around it. Such a disapointment.

[Carmen · Rating 3 out of 5]

We read this for a book club I am in as it was written by an expat living in Switzerland...

[Sara]

04 long list-orange prize

[Jessica]

Couldn't get into it. Don't know enough about Voltaire...

[Francescajemm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Blah. Didn't engage me. Read like a combo of a rambling memoir and a research paper on Voltaire. Wasn't seamless at all.

[Roberta · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got half-way in this novel and just ran out of steam. I was bored with the family and not learning anything about Voltaire or France. For me, the narrator was just too whiny.

[Joan]

love it