TOEFL integrated writing: Chevalier de Seingalt

The reading says about the Chevalier de Seingalt’s memoir and critics have raised doubts about the accuracy of his memoir. However, the lecture says that no memoir be possibly be correct in detail. But Chevalier memoir is pretty accurate. His memoir is a valuable historical source. The lecture says the accuracy and three episodes mentioned in the reading are:

First, the lecture says that the Chevalier took loan from the merchant. Critics say that he spent huge amount of money on parties and gambling in Switzerland. He was a rich man. He borrowed money from the Swiss merchant. Critics thus argue that if the Chevalier had really been very rich, he would not have needed to borrow money. But the lecture says that it was a kind of property that he had which he sold to the merchant than had taken money which means he was a rich person.

Second, the lecture says, that the conversation between the Chevalier and the famous writer Voltaire that he records in his memoir was accurate. The speaker says, each night he wrote conversation with the Voltaire, evidently he has kept his notes and journals for many years and regularly refer to them when he was writing his memoirs.

Third, the lecture says that the Chevalier escape in Venice. The other prisoners in the jail were having more powerful friends than he did and none could possibly be able to bribe. So, in his case bribery couldn’t be possible. The lecture further says that some old Venetian government documents said that when the Chevalier escaped from the jail by making hole in the sealing and said his room sealing had to be repaired. But the lecture says why would the officials do that unless he had to escape from the jail as he did.