Voltaire 1774 · Ferney
Return to work
16:00–20:00
“Il travaille jusqu’à huit”
Verbatim excerpt · French original · Paul Claude Moultou
Line breaks and page markers omitted.
English translation · typical tue
He works until eight.
Contemporary letter describing recurring habitsOpen
Letter from Ferney, 8 December 1774
Voltaire Society of America · Whitman College transcription from the Besterman correspondence edition
8 December 1774 · opening paragraph
Passage: After the carriage ride
Timing & context
A note on this hour
The sequence places this work after the ride ending at four. No invented morning work or sleep block is added.
Ferney habits described in December 1774 · Observed routine
Moultou describes a late-life routine with changing health. Remaining in bed until noon does not establish when Voltaire woke or whether he was working there.
1774 is the year of Moultou’s letter, which explicitly describes Voltaire’s usual routine. Supper depended on his health.