By what channels did the French Enlightenment reach the eighteenth-century Irish reader, and what was its impact? What were the images of Ireland current in France? What did philosophes like Montesquieu and Voltaire think of the country and its people? These are the questions which a team of scholars attempt to answer in this volume. Part I explains who could read French and evaluates the reception of French thought in areas like periodicals and scientific exchange as well as looking at reactions to Montesquieu, Voltaire and Rousseau. Part II examines the views of Ireland and the Irish prevailing in Enlightenment France. Part III explores the transmission of ideas through the importation of French books and translations from a number of cosmopolitan centres, and the thriving trade in Dublin reprints of the 'best-sellers' among these titles. Appendix I catalogues contemporary Irish literary periodicals and their French contents: Appendix II provides an extensive list of French books and translations connected with the Enlightenment and published in Ireland in the period 1700-1800. These appendixes will provide a useful tool for further research.

In 1766, while Voltaire was heavily involved in the Sirven case, he was also busy defending his own reputation. His "Lettre pastorale a Monsieur l'archeveque d'Auch" and "Satire contre Monsieur Lefranc de Pompignan" perpetuated feuds against old enemies, while his "Petit Commentaire" called for greater tolerance for the philosophes in general. A biography of Henri IV that made no reference to Voltaire's work as a historian impelled him to write the scathing "Le President de Thou justifie". An unauthorised, maliciously edited collection of his letters, which was potentially damaging to the Sirven campaign, prompted the "Appel au public contre un recueil de pretendues lettres". But Voltaire reserved his harshest treatment for Rousseau and the Genevan pastor Jacob Vernet. The "Lettre au docteur Jean-Jacques Pansophe", a litany of apparent contradictions in Rousseau's works, appeared in England during Rousseau's stay there. It was followed by the "Lettre de Monsieur de Voltaire a Monsieur Hume", giving Voltaire's account of Rousseau's life, and by "Notes" on that letter. Vernet was ridiculed in the "Lettre curieuse de Monsieur Robert Covelle" and the "Eloge de l'hypocrisie". The shorter verse presents a more affable side to Voltaire as he flatters nobles, writers and younger women.

En 1760, le pieux Jean-Jacques Le Franc de Pompignan denonce a l'Academie francaise la litterature et la philosophie du moment. Se declenche alors un deluge de pamphlets, un grand nombre des fusees les mieux ciblees partant de Ferney, notamment des contes en vers parmi les plus celebres de Voltaire: "La Vanite", "Le Russe a Paris" et "Le Pauvre Diable". Apres quelques mois, celui-ci se decide de reunir ces ecrits dans un "Recueil des faceties parisiennes". A ses propres textes, il ajoute quelques contributions d'autres philosophes, mais egalement des morceaux du parti ennemi, agrementes d'ajouts assassins sous la forme de notes et de prefaces.