Also included are autograph manuscript notes and news clippings regarding the Voltaire centennial, including a speech by Victor Hugo, translated by Parton, and French newspapers of the event. Parton was an American biographer. His The life of Horace Greeley : editor of “The New-York tribune”, from his birth to the present time was published in 1872 and his Life of Voltaire was published in 1881.

Pyat suggests parallels between art and politics, and he references several of his own works (Une révolution d’autrefois, Ango, Le brigand et le philosophe, Les deux serruriers, Mathilde, Diogène, Le chiffonnier de Paris). Mentions the 1848 revolution and the Paris Commune. Includes references to Goethe, Shakespeare, Molière, Voltaire, and others. Harshly criticizes the vicomte de Chateaubriand and Victor Hugo.