Pearson, Roger A.G.

(Roger Pearson)

PERSONAL: Male. Education: Holds M.A. and D.Phil. degrees.

ADDRESSES: Office—Queen's College, University of Oxford, High St., Oxford OX1 4AW, England. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Educator, writer, editor, and translator. Has worked as a professor of French at Queen's College, Oxford.

WRITINGS:

Stendhal's Violin: A Novelist and his Reader, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1988.

The Fables of Reason: A Study of Voltaire's "Contes Philosophiques," Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1993.

(Translator) Émile Zola, The Masterpiece, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1993.

(Editor) Stendhal: The Red and the Black and The Charterhouse of Parma, Longman (New York, NY), 1994.

(Translator) Émile Zola, La bête humaine, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1996.

Unfolding Mallarmé: The Development of a Poetic Art, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1996.

(Translator) Voltaire, Candide and Other Stories, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1998, revised, 2006.

(Translator) Guy de Maupassant, A Life, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1999.

Mallarmé and Circumstance: The Translation of Silence, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2004.

(Translator) Émile Zola, Germinal, Penguin Books (New York, NY), 2004.

Voltaire Almighty: A Life in Pursuit of Freedom, Bloomsbury (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Author Roger A.G. Pearson is an educator and scholar of French history and literature, specifically that of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He has taught French at Queen's College at the University of Oxford. Pearson has translated, edited, and written a number of books on French authors and notable figures, including Voltaire, Stendhal, Victor Hugo, Émile Zola, and Mallarmé.

In 2005, Pearson published Voltaire Almighty: A Life in Pursuit of Freedom. The book focuses on the life of the famous French Enlightenment figure Voltaire, a prolific playwright and author. Pearson's book details Voltaire's professional life, philosophical inclinations, and personal relationships, including the long courtship he maintained with his niece Marie-Louise Denis. The author also discusses Voltaire's constant conflict with church and political officials because of his controversial writings.

Overall, Voltaire Almighty was met with praise and critical acclaim. For some readers, Pearson's approachable writing style and inclusion of interesting facts and anecdotes made the book successful. The author writes in an "engaging style that sustains the reader's interest from start to finish," wrote Library Journal contributor Bob Ivey. For others, the book encompasses Voltaire's notable life without abbreviating his numerous contributions to the ideas of his time. Pearson presents a "spirited biography that truly captures Voltaire's irrepressible genius," observed Bryce Christensen in a review for Booklist.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 1, 2005, Bryce Christensen, review of Voltaire Almighty: A Life in Pursuit of Freedom, p. 49.

Harper's Magazine, December 2005, John Leonard, review of Voltaire Almighty, p. 85.

Independent, November 27, 2005, Robin Buss, review of Voltaire Almighty.

Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2005, review of Voltaire Almighty, p. 834.

Library Journal, October 15, 2005, Bob Ivey, review of Voltaire Almighty, p. 58.

Modern Language Review, April 1997, David Coward, review of The Fables of Reason: A Study of Voltaire's "Contes philosophiques," p. 468.

Observer, November 20, 2005, Peter Conrad, review of Voltaire Almighty.

Publishers Weekly, August 8, 2005, review of Voltaire Almighty, p. 222.

ONLINE

Beatrice, http://www.beatrice.com/ (November 16, 2005), interview with Roger Pearson.

University of Oxford Medieval and Modern Languages Faculty Web site, http://www.mod-langs.ox.ac.uk/ (March 9, 2006), biographical information about Roger Pearson.