An empty dark wooden frame with torn red cloth draped over one side and a short chain hanging below on an olive wall.

Original artwork, not a still

L'Ingénu, ch.10  ·  1767

Voltaire

Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

History, the speaker claims, is just a picture of crimes and misfortunes. It's a bleak view that reduces the past to a display of wrongdoing and bad luck, presenting that as the whole story rather than one part of it.

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