William Henry Barber

William Henry Barber (* 1918 ; † 2004 ) was a British Romanist and Voltaire researcher .

life and work

Barber studied French and German at Oxford from 1937 to 1940 . After the war, which he participated in as a paramedic, he taught in Bangor from 1947 and from 1955 at Birkbeck College in London (1968 professor of French literature, 1979 vice-president of the University of London ).

Barber published The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies from 1958 to 1960 , was President of the Society for French Studies from 1964 to 1966, and from 1974 to 1993 (as the successor to Theodore Besterman ) headed the Voltaire Foundation, which was based at Oxford University from 1976 .

Works

• Leibniz in France from Arnauld to Voltaire. A study in French reactions to Leibnizianism 1670-1760 , Oxford 1955, New York 1985
• Candide , London 1960
• (Ed.) Voltaire, 1734-1735. Alzire ou Les Americains. Le comte de Boursoufle. Traité de métaphysique. Poésies , Oxford 1989 (Les oeuvres complètes de Voltaire 14)
• (Ed. With Roberts L. Walters) Voltaire, Éléments de la philosophie de Newton , Oxford 1992 (Les oeuvres complètes de Voltaire 15)

literature

• Voltaire and his world. Studies presented to WH Barber , Oxford 1985 (Festschrift)
• Nicholas Cronk, Hommage à William Barber (1918–2004), in: Revue Voltaire 4, 2004, pp. 5–8 (with picture)