Printed in Basel in 1732, this volume of Voltaire's History of Charles XII, King of Sweden, one of the earliest and most influential historical works by the French Enlightenment philosopher. First published in 1731, the work became an immediate success and was revised repeatedly by Voltaire throughout his lifetime. Rather than writing a conventional royal biography, Voltaire transformed the life of the Swedish warrior-king into a philosophical study of ambition, military genius, political power, and the destructive consequences of endless warfare. Charles XII's dramatic campaigns against Russia, Poland, the Ottoman Empire, and throughout Northern Europe are presented with remarkable narrative energy while illustrating Voltaire's emerging philosophy of history—placing critical analysis above legend and emphasizing the causes and consequences of historical events. Modern scholars regard this work as Voltaire's first major historical masterpiece and an important milestone in the development of modern historiography.