[6] Voltaire repeatedly remarked that he aimed less at a conventional history of great men and events, than something like a painting: he highlighted historical and cultural trends in the way that a painter brings out shadings of light and color which may be more important than the ostensible subject depicted.

Rather than chronicling military victories, he saw more greatness in the progress of reason and culture, such as the advance of art or the rejection of medieval superstition and the end of imprisonment for sorcery.

[7] In the early 19th century, the English writer Hannah More wrote that Voltaire had "decorated both the period and the king with so much that is great and brilliant, that they fill a large space in the eye of the reader.

"[8] The American writer Virginia Randolph Cary wrote in 1828 that "Voltaire's General History, and his Age of Lewis XIV, will always be read with pleasure.

"[9] The publication of new editions of The Age of Louis XIV in the late 20th century helped to renew interest in Voltaire as a historian.