Published on the occasion of his retirement in honour of his outstanding contribution to French Enlightenment studies, this volume explores those areas of research in which David Williams has excelled and continues to excel: literary criticism, particularly Voltaire, the history of ideas, women and Enlightenment, colonial practices and revolutionary politics. It brings together a collection of essays from some of the most prestigious international names in the field and tackles subjects which expose in all their splendid diversity the enterprise - both innovation and undertaking - of the Si?cle des Lumi?res.