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    Candide
    Candide
    Candide
    Ebook156 pages2 hours

    Candide

    By . Voltaire

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    François-Marie Arouet (French: [fʁɑ̃.swa ma.ʁi aʁ.wɛ]; 21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), known by his nom de plume Voltaire (/voʊlˈtɛər/; French: [vɔl.tɛːʁ]), was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a versatile writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets. He was an outspoken advocate of several liberties, despite the risk this placed him in under the strict censorship laws of the time. As a satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma, and the French institutions of his day (font: Wikipedia)
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherVoltaire
    Release dateOct 2, 2015
    ISBN9788893156905
    Author

    . Voltaire

    Born in Paris in 1694, François-Marie Arouet, who would later go by the nom-de-plume Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment philosopher, poet, historian, and author. Voltaire’s writing was often controversial, and in 1715 he was sent into his first exile in Tulle after a writing a satirical piece about the Duke of Orleans, the Regent of France. It was during this time that he produced his first major work, the play Oedipus. Although allowed to return to Paris a year later, Voltaire’s writing continued to land him in trouble. He was jailed in the Bastille two more times and was exiled from Paris for a good portion of his life. Throughout these troubles, Voltaire continued to write, producing works of poetry, a number of plays, and some historical and political texts. His most famous work is the satirical novel Candide, and many of his plays, including Oedipus and Socrates, are still performed today. Voltaire died in 1778.

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    Reviews for Candide

    4/5

    4,164 ratings124 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Absolutely hilarious, and extremely easy to read as well.
    • 4/5
      I saw this at the Guthrie Theater in the late 80s and it was great; the story still holds up.
    • 3/5
      Very enjoyable, especially for a philosophical stint. Definitely a book I will want to read several times over to digest, but for an initial reading it was fairly light.
    • 5/5
      Hilarious! Ever since reading The Baroque Cycle (or at least the first two books and the first half of the third one) I've loved this historical period, and it's clear Stephenson wrote it with Candide in mind. It's silly, clever, and risqué, and you can read it in an afternoon.
    • 3/5
      Classic modern fable exploring the once popular philosophy of 'everything now is exactly as it should be and for the best' with comedic results.
    • 4/5
      Very funny. Cynical. This edition was a please to read. Not great realistic storytelling but that wasn't the point of it, now was it.
    • 5/5
      For most of my life I have been quoting and cracking wise: "All is for the best in this most perfect of all perfect worlds", a statement whose essential truth is its irony. But until now I'd never read Voltaire's Candide, the source for Dr. Pangloss' sincerely delivered (by the character) but ironically presented (by the author) wisdom. And I'd never known just how vast a survey of 18th century cruelty Voltaire conducted while expressing his ironic untruth and rebutting it.

      There are many lovely surprises in this 1759 philosophical romance. The first is the delightful entry it give us into the world of the 18th century itself - its fantasies, politics, stereotypes and lusts. We experience empire in the old and new worlds, common prejudices, and the tapestry of mid-18th century European and American political and social realities. We get a little tour of Voltaire's known world, and an imaginary depiction of the New World too.

      Second, Voltaire writes of an age of astonishing brutality - rape, torture, stabbings, auto de fe - the bodies and the suffering are piled as high in this book as any tale of a Soviet Gulag or the Holocaust. An age so experienced understandably raised the most profound questions of good and evil.

      Third, this book is delightfully sexual, not in a modern pornographic sense, but in an inimitably 18th century way. It reminds us that lust as much as love is a universal human experience, across the ages. Yet, in the 18th century as portrayed by Voltaire sex is a cruel mistress and master. It has its delights... but the images of punishment for sexual transgressions and of whoredom, disease, rape and the cruelty of lost female beauty are presented unflinchingly. This is the sexual world as it was, and it too is a world of violence and loss.

      This is also a romance, that both mocks affection and yet depends upon it, sees its absurdity and yet valorizes it. Candide's love for Cunegonde is basically ridiculous, as is Candide himself and as is the philosopher Pangloss for whom he professes admiration. Yet it is the ground of his being as a character, and drives the whole story forward. He is a romantic fool. In the end, Martin and a humble Turk farmer, provide the answer to Candide and Pangloss's insipid optimism, as illustrated in the quotes below. But I'm not sure that Voltaire completely repudiates Candide's love for Cunegonde.

      This is a comedy on many levels. Candide's endless ability to find new money, to land on his feet, to acquire new traveling companions, are all so silly that they hardly need to be remarked upon. The silliness is just good fun, creating situations in which Voltaire explores ideas against the background of evil and cruelty.

      It is also of course, specifically, a sex comedy, using the readers prurient interest in matters connubial and concupiscencial to discuss deep philosophical questions. It is reassuring that sex sells, and has been selling since at least the mid-18th century. But is there some deeper connection between sex and the meaning of life, sex and optimism, sex and pessimism, that is plumbed here?

      I was moved to think of Kohelet's (Ecclesiastes') questions after I put this down. To what extent are Candide's and King Solomon's wisdom aligned? "The end of the matter, everything having been heard, fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the entire man." This is essentially a Jewish version of "labor in your garden", the garden at issue being the garden of mitzvot, n'est-ce pas? At the very least we can say that both share an attitude of age ripened wisdom, and a certain rejoicing in a clarifying pessimism.

      There is however a curious meta-Panglossian sense that in the author's hands, nothing can go wrong, no dungeon will be unescaped, no death will be permanent, and all will ultimately be for the best. And in the end, Candide and his companions are safely delivered, together with the reader, to the wisdom of working the garden.



      Notable Quotable

      "'Tis demonstrated," said he, "that things cannot be otherwise; for, since everything is made for an end, everything is necessarily for the best end. Observe that noses were made to wear spectacles; and so we have spectacles. Legs were visible instituted to be breeched, and we have breeches. Stones were formed to be quarried and to build castles; and My Lord has a very noble castle; the greatest Baron in the province should have the best house; and as pigs were made to be eaten, we eat pork all the year round; consequently, those who have asserted that all is well talk nonsense; they ought to have said that it is for the best."

      ~

      "One day when Cunegonde was walking near the castle, in a little wood which was called the Park, she observed Doctor Pangloss in the bushes, giving a lesson in experimental physics to her mother's waiting-maid, a very pretty and docile brunette. Mademoiselle Cunegonde had a great inclination for science and watched breathlessly the reiterated experiments she witnessed; she observed clearly the Doctor's sufficient reason, the effects and the causes, and returned home very much excited, pensive, filled with the desire of learning, reflecting that she might be the sufficient reason of young Candide and he might be hers."

      ~

      "You are very hard," said Candide. "That's because I have lived, " said Martin.

      ~

      "Music nowadays is merely the art of executing difficulties and in the end that which is only difficult ceases to please." (Pococurante)

      ~

      "Oh! what a superior man!" said Candide under his breath "What a great genius this Pococurante is! Nothing can please him."

      ~

      "I should like to know which is worse... to endure all the miseries through which we have passed, or to remain here doing nothing?" (The Old Woman)

      ~

      "... Martin especially concluded that man was born to live in the convulsions of distress or in the lethargy of boredom. Candide did not agree, but he asserted nothing. Pangloss confessed that he and always suffered horribly; but , having once maintained that everything was for the best, he had continued to maintain it without believing it."

      ~

      "I have only twenty acres, " replied the Turk. "I cultivate them with my children; and work keeps at bay three great villains: boredom, vice and need."

      ~

      "Let us work without arguing, said Martin; "'tis the only way to make life endurable."

      ~

      Said the widow:

      "I have been a hundred times upon the point of killing myself, but still I was fond of life. This ridiculous weakness is, perhaps, one of the dangerous principles implanted in our nature. For what can be more absurd than to persist in carrying a burden of which we wish to be eased? to detest, and yet to strive to preserve our existence? In a word, to caress the serpent that devours us, and hug him close to our bosoms till he has gnawed into our hearts?"
    • 4/5
      The great master of satire. The thing I love about Voltaire is that he just honestly couldn't help himself. He was wealthy and liked, and he just couldn't stop from commenting in a not particularly nice way about the people and events of the day.
    • 3/5
      Interesting satire - wonderful narration.
    • 4/5
      Without context, this book reads like a series of unfortunate events. (Hey – that’s another book! Haw haw.) With context, this brilliant little book is a biting satire where Voltaire spared no opportunity to poke fun at every thought and event that he found wrong with society in the 1700’s. Voltaire challenged the idea endemic in his days, that ‘all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds’. Back of book: “It was the indifferent shrug and callous inertia that this ‘optimism’ concealed which so angered Voltaire, who found the ‘all for the best’ approach a patently inadequate response to suffering, to natural disasters – such as a the recent earthquakes in Lima and Lisbon – not to mention the questions of illness and man-made war.” Voltaire was 64 years old when he wrote Candide in 1758. He was internationally recognized as a satiric genius, which also meant the government is none too pleased with him, resulting in two stays in the Bastille, flogging, and exile. Fun stuff for being a genius – yikes!In the book, Voltaire takes us through a journey of pain and suffering, coping and recovering, or simply death in many cases. Murder, rape, butchering, imprisonment, forcibly drafted into army, beatings, hanging, earthquake, drowning, slavery, prostitution, cannibalism, swindles, dethroned kings, living with false smiles, forced into priesthood, and much more. At times, Candide pauses and wonders if ‘All is for the best’ is a logical view. I can’t decide if I would characterize Candide as being naïve in addition to being kind. The latter he definitely is, never hesitating to share his fortunes, however few it may be at times. For the sake of completeness, I will slap him once, for his callousness when he no longer wished to marry Cunegonde because she has become ugly. :P The ending, its simplicity, is satisfying. It mirrors quite a bit to life – less talking, more doing – something I find myself saying too.Having seen Candide, the operetta, and by chance, was at the New York Public Library (Main) when they had a special exhibit of Voltaire’s original manuscripts, I wonder what took me so long to pick up the book. As an aside, the earthquake of Lisbon is readily the event that altered the course of the country’s history, ending its naval powers, sending its monarchy to the mountains (literally), and left the country behind its neighbors throughout history. Its downtown, wharf area is still sparse to this day. It’s pretty amazing that Voltaire saw through the B.S. then. Quotes – illustrating the powers of Voltaire’s words – witty, sharp, dripping with sarcasm, dipped with duality:Re: Sex – The ‘innocent’ Cunegonde seeing the action. The roundabout verbiage is immensely hilarious.“One day Cunegonde was walking near the house in a little coppice, called ‘the park’, when she saw Dr. Pangloss behind some bushes giving a lesson in experimental physics to her mother’s waiting-woman, a pretty little brunette who seems eminently teachable. Since Lady Cunegonde took a great interest in science, she watched the experiments being repeated with breathless fascination. She saw clearly the Doctor’s ‘sufficient reason’, and took note of cause and effect. Then, in a disturbed and thoughtful state of mind, she returned home filled with a desire for learning, and fancied that she could reason equally well with young Candide and he with her.” Re: Man-Made War – Eloquently compared to hell, and note the last two words– ‘heroic butchery’, Chapter 3.“Those who have never seen two well-trained armies drawn up for battle, can have no idea of the beauty and brilliance of the display. Bugles, fifes, oboes, drums, and salvoes of artillery produced such a harmony as Hell itself could not rival. The opening barrage destroyed about six thousand men on each side. Rifle-fire which followed rid this best of worlds of about nine or ten thousand villains who infested its surface. Finally, the bayonet provided ‘sufficient reason’ for the death of several thousand more. The total casualties amounted to about thirty thousand. Candide trembled like a philosopher, and hid himself as best he could during this heroic butchery .“Re: The Atrocities and Brutality of War – Voltaire painted this searing image of a ravished village, Chapter 3.“It was now no more than a smoking ruin, for the Bulgars had burned it to the ground in accordance with the terms of international law. Old men, crippled with wounds, watched helplessly the deaththroes of their butchered women-folk, who still clasped their children to their bloodstained breasts. Girls who had satisfied the appetites of several heroes lay disemboweled in their last agonies. Others, whose bodies were badly scorched, begged to be put out of their misery. Whichever way he looked, the ground was strewn with the legs, arms, and brains of dead villagers.”Re: Disease and its genealogy, with bonus humor on chocolate. Following the passage on the genealogy of Pangloss’ syphilis/pox (which is entertaining too), I found this even more amusing. How the times have changed that a disease can travel the world, as did the bird flu so much faster these days than in the 1700’s, Chapter 4: “For if Columbus, when visiting the West Indies, had not caught this disease, which poisons the source of generation, which frequently even hinders generation, and is clearly opposed to the great end of Nature, we should have neither chocolate nor cochineal. We see, too, that to this very day the disease, like religious controversy, is peculiar to us Europeans. The Turks, the Indians, the Persians, the Chinese, the Siamese, the Japanese as yet have no knowledge of it; but there is a ‘sufficient reason’ for their experiencing it in turn in the course of a few centuries.” If only Voltaire knows about the Catholic Priests’ sex scandals today(!), Chapter 11.“I am the daughter of Pope Urban X and the Princess of Palestrina.*”“*Notice how exceedingly discreet our author is. There has so far been no Pope called Urban X. He hesitates to ascribe a bastard to an actual Pope. What discretion! What a tender conscience he shows! [Voltaire’s note.]” Suicide vs. Living – such a painful choice sometimes, Chapter 12:“I have wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but somehow I am still in love with life. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our most melancholy propensities; for is there anything more stupid than to be eager to go on carrying a burden which one would gladly throw away, to loathe one’s very being and yet to hold it fast, to fondle the snake that devours us until it has eaten our hearts away?” Candide breaks in Chapter 19, upon hearing the negro’s story of this life with chopped off hand and chopped off leg:“What is Optimism?”“It’s the passion for maintaining that all is right when all goes wrong with us.”No peace for men, from Martin, the pessimist, Chapter 20“A million regimented assassins surge from one end of Europe to the other, earning their living by committing murder and brigandage in strictest discipline, because they have no more honest livelihood; and in those towns which seem to enjoy the blessings of peace and where the arts flourish, men suffer more from envy, cares, and anxiety than a besieged town suffers from the scourges of war, for secret vexations are much more cruel than public miseries. “ Re: Men’s Character – Candide vs. Martin, the pessimist, Chapter 21“Do you think that men have always massacred each other, as they do today, that they have always been false, cozening, faithless, ungrateful, thieving, weak, inconstant, mean-spirited, envious, greedy, drunken, miserly, ambitious, bloody, slanderous, debauched, fanatic, hypocritical, and stupid?”“Do you think that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they could find them?”“Of course I do.”“Well, if hawks have always had the same character, why should you suppose that men have changed theirs?”Re: Money doesn’t buy happiness, Chapter 25“You must admit that there is the happiest man alive, because he is superior to all he possesses.”“ Don’t you see that he is disgusted with everything he possesses? Plato long ago said that the best stomachs are not those that reject all food.”
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed delving into the theological wanderings of this 17th century philosopher; the backgrounds and criticisms also helped to give the book more depth and context. It was thrilling for me to "get to know" a writer so bold and unflinching in his views, who lived 400 years before I was even born. Candide was delightful--a tease for the brain as well as a story for the soul. I'd recommend.
    • 5/5
      Voltaire is a famous philosopher of the Enlightenment, and Candide his most famous work. It's very short, a satiric send-up of Leibniz's theory of optimism through Candide's mentor Dr. Pangloss, who believes we live in "the best of all possible worlds" even in the face of increasingly insane disasters. I thought particularly funny the "genealogy of syphilis" where Pangloss traces the lineage of his infection back in a "direct line from one of Christopher Columbus's shipmates." I also rather loved the iconoclastic and grumpy twitting of classics by Pococurante. I might not agree with his lambasting of Homer and Virgil (though I thought he was dead on about Milton) but I agreed with his principle that "Ignorant readers are apt to judge a writer by his reputation. For my part, I read only to please myself. I like nothing but what makes for my purpose." The story wasn't what I expected from the introduction calling this one of Voltaire's "fables of reason" meant to elucidate philosophy. This wasn't at all dry or inaccessible and was quite fun with lots of lines I'd be tempted to quote if there weren't so many that were wise, witty and striking. This short satire reminded me quite a bit of Swift's Gulliver's Travel only with less bathroom humor and more good-natured.
    • 4/5
      A voluntary read, I quickly discovered why this book is considered a classic. The cynicism was quaintly balanced with a bit of humor. The prose and plot have been unforgettable.
    • 3/5
      It is a rather depressing book, but it is interesting, and it will raise a multitude of questions in your head.
    • 5/5
      Candide by Voltaire is a laugh out loud funny book, if you're in the right frame of mind. I read sections of it aloud to CJ and both of us ended up in hysterics. (Be warned, its comedy is often quite dark and unlikely to pass anyone's sensitivity test.) It was written in 1759 and it is clearly a product of its time; but it also still has much to say to us about the current state of the world, unfortunately. The story concerns an idealistic, handsome young man, Candide, who finds his optimism repeatedly tested by the treacherous people he meets and the violent world he inhabits. As a youth, Candide, the son of a wealthy Baron, is tutored by Dr. Pangloss, a German philosopher, who's world view is summed up in the opening chapter, "It is demonstrated that things cannot be otherwise: for, since everything was made for a purpose, everything is necessarily for the best purpose...Therefore, those who have maintained that all is well have been talking nonsense: they should have maintained that all is for the best." Candide clings to Dr. Pangloss' philosoply after Dr. Pangloss is hung and burned at the stake, even after he is driven from his home, separated from his beloved Cunegonde and forced into an unforgiving, hostile world. Candide travels the world looking for Cunegonde and for a place free from suffering. He is at times imprisoned, enslaved, starved, tortured, kidnapped, marooned, etc. etc., but all the while, he believes that all is for the best. The result is a kind of Series of Unfortunate Events for adults. The situations become so comically awful that the reader cannot help but laugh at them and at Candide's reaction. At one point, towards the end of the book, Candide encounters six former kings attending the carnival in Venice. Each king tells his story, all of them stories of how they lost their thrones. Each king's story tries to top the injustice endured by the previous teller with very humorous results. Everyone Candide meets has a tale of woe to tell, yet no one can make a dent in Candide's optimism. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Candide. I expected it to be heavy going, never having read Voltaire before. Instead I found a quickly paced adventure with witty dialogue and satire that I actually found humorous. Candide benefits from the novella form. Had this been a full length novel it would have undoubtedly become tedious. Brevity is the source of wit after all. (I think that's right, anyway.)So, I'm giving Candide by Voltaire five out of five stars. I may end up putting it on my best of the year list this year.
    • 5/5
      Loved it!!! Can't believe how something written more than 250 years ago is so relavent to today's society. Voltaire is brilliant and his satirical, cutting humor - spot on!!
    • 4/5
      Candide is a very childish and silly book, which isn't to say that I didn't enjoy it, but that I would have enjoyed it more had it been a bit more complex. The themes and the message, and his attacks, are all very sensible in conception, it is just the way that they are executed that seems puerile. It is as though the philosophy teacher has put a clowns mask on for his lecture, because he thinks that his class (the average Frenchman) won't take notice of him otherwise. It is sarcastic all the way through, and there is irony and satire, but it is never subtle. Had it been subtle, the comic effect could have been greater. It is as though it was written so that anyone could understand it, and it is short enough for the reader not to get bored before finishing it.Clearly it is a work written by a philosopher, though written not for a philosopher but for someone rather simpler.I don't think I've read any other novels which are as overtly philosophical, so there isn't a lot I can compare it with, but in terms of skill with satire, Voltaire is no better than Swift or Waugh at their best. Still, for all the silliness, the message isn't spoilt, and this is a book that will appeal to a lot of people, and one that is worthwhile reading.
    • 3/5
      The Baron's lady weighed about three hundred and fifty pounds, and was therefore a person of great consideration.One day when Cunegonde was walking near the castle, in a little wood which was called the Park, she observed Doctor Pangloss in the bushes, giving a lesson in experimental physics to her mother's waiting-maid, a very pretty and docile brunette. Mademoiselle Cunegonde had a great inclination for science and watched breathlessly the reiterated experiments she witnessed; she observed clearly the Doctor's sufficient reason, the effects and the causes, and returned home very much excited, pensive, filled with the desire of learning, reflecting that she might be the sufficient reason of young Candide and he might be hers.Candide that he was a young metaphysician, extremely ignorant of the things of this world...Candide, who trembled like a philosopher, hid himself as well as he could during this heroic butchery.Pangloss made answer in these terms: "Oh, my dear Candide, you remember Paquette, that pretty wench who waited on our noble Baroness; in her arms I tasted the delights of paradise, which produced in me those hell torments with which you see me devoured; she was infected with them, she is perhaps dead of them. This present Paquette received of a learned Grey Friar, who had traced it to its source; he had had it of an old countess, who had received it from a cavalry captain, who owed it to a marchioness, who took it from a page, who had received it from a Jesuit, who when a novice had it in a direct line from one of the companions of Christopher Columbus. For my part I shall give it to nobody, I am dying."Our men defended themselves like the Pope's soldiers; they flung themselves upon their knees, and threw down their arms,"Oh! what a superior man," said Candide below his breath. "What a great genius is this Pococurante! Nothing can please him." "But is there not a pleasure," said Candide,[Pg 141] "in criticising everything, in pointing out faults where others see nothing but beauties?" "That is to say," replied Martin, "that there is some pleasure in having no pleasure."Instantly Candide sent for a Jew, to whom he sold for fifty thousand sequins a diamond worth a hundred thousand, though the fellow swore to him by Abraham that he could give him no more."I know also," said Candide, "that we must cultivate our garden." "You are right," said Pangloss, "for when man was first placed in the Garden of Eden, he was put there ut operaretur eum, that he might cultivate it; which shows that man was not born to be idle." "Let us work," said Martin, "without disputing; it is the only way to render life tolerable."
    • 4/5
      Frank McLynn's work 1759: The Year Britain Became Master of the World mentioned a good deal about Voltaire, as did Leo Dramrosch's Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius. This is my first Voltaire and I was surprised by how small the novella is relative to its historical impact. This has led me to purchase Edmund Burke's A Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful and to take up Tristram Shandy again. Candide and Tristram Shandy were, of course, both published in 1759 so the linkages with my earlier reading are apparent, if unintended. If anything I have gained from Candide confirmation of the idea of tending one's own garden, not to mention a burning desire to remove all further naivety from my very being.
    • 4/5
      Great satire right on par with Johnathan Swift in Gullivers Travels.
    • 4/5
      A witty and satirical look at the life of Candide, the love of his life, his valet, philosophy mentor and others as they travel and live through horrors that are inflicted on them. Thank goodness for the Notes provided with the book because it helped me understand some of the terms used, and also provided a great deal of cultural and historical information.
    • 5/5
      It’s funny how many small coincidences there are in life. I picked up this book about a year ago with good intentions, only to let it sit on a shelf until I stuffed it into a box to move to Bracebridge. I was looking for something different to read a few nights ago and stumbled across it.In other news, I’m currently preparing to preach a series of “Meaningless Messages” on Ecclesiastes. Imagine my surprise when I realized that Candide was essentially a retelling of Ecclesiastes!Does life have a purpose? Do we live in the best of all possible worlds? What should we do in life?"Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him—for this is his lot." (Ecclesiastes 5:18, NIV)"'Let’s work, then, without disputing,' says Martin. 'It is the only way to make life bearable.'” (130)For an old classic, Candide is surprisingly readable. If you want to rethink your position on the meaning of life, this is an interesting place to start.
    • 3/5
      I read this for my World Lit II class. I wouldn't have read it otherwise. But am I glad I have this under my belt now? You bet. This was especially fun to read aloud. To my mother. Who hated every minute of it. Ha, ha. A lot of the satire went way over my head, even after class discussions. But I was still amused by all of the crazy ordeals that poor Candide was put through.
    • 3/5
      There is a great scene in the movie “Vacation” where Chevy Chase, who is on a manic quest to drive his family across country to an amusement park, stops at the Grand Canyon. After taking in the splendor for all of four or five seconds, he hustles the family back into the van to continue the trip, content that they have checked another “must see” landmark off their list.I felt a little like that reading this book. Having long been on my “must read” list, I found "Candide" to be a remarkably forgettable experience that provided little nourishment or pleasure. Its reputation as a classic of the Age of Enlightenment notwithstanding, this satirical novella is at once a slight and heavy-handed trifle. Voltaire’s well-established premise for writing the book was to tear down the philosophy of Optimism (“All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds”) that prevailed at the time and which he found to be distinctly at odds with the world he saw around him. However, this is a debate that is more than two centuries in the past and for all his scathing wit, the author offers little in the way of an alternative philosophy save the admonition that man should stay busy and have a purpose, no matter how menial.All that said, I did not dislike the novel but neither did I find it to be either memorable or thought-provoking. I’m happy to have finally read it—at little more than 100 pages, it certainly won’t take up too much of your time—if only to have checked it off my list once and for all.
    • 5/5
      This was for me, only my 3rd venture into: The 'Classics'. I found it uncomplicated, exciting, emotionally stirring and enjoyably thought provoking. I found myself genuinely empathizing with, and sincerely sympathizing for, the characters.It is on my list of top 100 books to recommend, generally and my top 50 to recommend of the commonly acknowledged ‘Classics’.It should be on EVERY Reading List, and All, young, and not so young alike should be encouraged to add this volume to their list of, ‘Have Reads’. - Lucif~Eos Draqonoviicht
    • 5/5
      This short work is the finest example of a sustained literary assault on a philosophical idea; in this case, the idea of Optimism put forth by Leibniz. It was inspired in part by the 1755 Lisbon earthquake that claimed up to 100,000 lives, a disaster that did not fit well in the Leibnizian Optimistic View that this was the best of all possible worlds. Candide is a short, precise and very focused attack on this attitude. As such, it is a masterpiece of world satire along with other notable works like Gulliver's Travels and Huckleberry Finn.
    • 5/5
      Very funny book. Candide travels the world finding injustice everywhere he goes. It's a fast and easy read.
    • 4/5
      Finally got around to reading this - it is one part satire, one part comedy, and one part ethical quandary. And... it is quite short and easy to read. Here we have poor Candide - who spends his whole life following the advice of Dr. Pangloss. Poor Candide - he loves the Lady Cunegonde, and she loves him, which gets him in trouble with his lord, and sets him on the path of black comedy.This book isn't pleasant to read. At times, it is quite dark. Its written to demonstrate a point. Which is 'happiness isn't given to you - you make it'. There are also ethical quandaries about war and the the noble class. Poor Candide - he is an idiot- afloat in a sea spending.I do think that this book has layers upon layers of meaning - It will be a book I intend to re-read and see its meaning changes.
    • 5/5
      Voltaire is still recognized as one of history's greatest satirists, and after reading Candide it's not hard to see why. Two and a half centuries later, it still has the power both to amuse and to shock.On the surface, as has often been noted, Candide is obviously a critique of the philosophy of Liebniz, and especially of the idea that this is the best of all possible worlds and everything is as it had to be in order for this to be so (in accordance, presumably, with the plans of an omnipotent and omnibenevolent Creator). Voltaire goes quite over the top in showing the misadventures and misfortunes that befall his befuddled hero, who at first whole-heartedly buys into this "optimism."Eventually, Candide's tale concludes with his advice that we should all just tend to our gardens--the precise meaning of which has been widely (and wildly) speculated about. Many take it to be a rejection of philosophy as such as being entirely useless, and we should just take a more pragmatic approach to life, though I find this interpretation untenable. More likely, given what we know about Voltaire as an Enlightenment thinker and from the content of Candide itself, it is simply a rejection of one philosophical school, namely that of rationalism. This is wider than just Liebniz, and Voltaire does target the ideas of other major rationalists (e.g., Descartes) as well. The message seems to be that philosophy is useless *when it has nothing to do with, and is in fact contradicted by, our actual experience.* The ending then suggests a much more practical sort of philosophy, like the one represented in America by Voltaire's contemporary Benjamin Franklin, but it is a philosophy nonetheless.In the end, this is a highly entertaining and thought-provoking story that is still very relevant in today's world, and should still be required reading for everybody.
    • 3/5
      Having never read anything by Voltaire before I didn't know what to expect, but he being known as one of the greatest French philosophers of all times, I was prepared for a tedious and complex novel.I couldn't have been wronger. "Candide" is a satirical short tale, without ornaments, straight to the point, which describes the crudeness of human nature. We follow Candide and his friends travelling around the world and suffering all king of imaginable vicissitudes while trying to believe what their master told them: That everything is for the best. The final message left me a bit dumbfounded, I expected wise advice after such strong criticism and Voltaire gives the reader the pessimist impression that he gives little credit to humans in general, as if we were inferior creatures who shouldn't bother to question about philosophical issues which are beyond our limited understanding.All in all, a strange reading which left me wondering if we can take something positive out of this sarcastic and raw tale.

    Book preview

    Candide - . Voltaire

    Candide

    Voltaire

    INTRODUCTION

    Ever since 1759, when Voltaire wrote Candide in ridicule of the notion that this is the best of all possible worlds, this world has been a gayer place for readers. Voltaire wrote it in three days, and five or six generations have found that its laughter does not grow old.

    Candide has not aged. Yet how different the book would have looked if Voltaire had written it a hundred and fifty years later than 1759. It would have been, among other things, a book of sights and sounds. A modern writer would have tried to catch and fix in words some of those Atlantic changes which broke the Atlantic monotony of that voyage from Cadiz to Buenos Ayres. When Martin and Candide were sailing the length of the Mediterranean we should have had a contrast between naked scarped Balearic cliffs and headlands of Calabria in their mists. We should have had quarter distances, far horizons, the altering silhouettes of an Ionian island. Colored birds would have filled Paraguay with their silver or acid cries.

    Dr. Pangloss, to prove the existence of design in the universe, says that noses were made to carry spectacles, and so we have spectacles. A modern satirist would not try to paint with Voltaire's quick brush the doctrine that he wanted to expose. And he would choose a more complicated doctrine than Dr. Pangloss's optimism, would study it more closely, feel his destructive way about it with a more learned and caressing malice. His attack, stealthier, more flexible and more patient than Voltaire's, would call upon us, especially when his learning got a little out of control, to be more than patient. Now and then he would bore us. Candide never bored anybody except William Wordsworth.

    Voltaire's men and women point his case against optimism by starting high and falling low. A modern could not go about it after this fashion. He would not plunge his people into an unfamiliar misery. He would just keep them in the misery they were born to.

    But such an account of Voltaire's procedure is as misleading as the plaster cast of a dance. Look at his procedure again. Mademoiselle Cunégonde, the illustrious Westphalian, sprung from a family that could prove seventy-one quarterings, descends and descends until we find her earning her keep by washing dishes in the Propontis. The aged faithful attendant, victim of a hundred acts of rape by negro pirates, remembers that she is the daughter of a pope, and that in honor of her approaching marriage with a Prince of Massa-Carrara all Italy wrote sonnets of which not one was passable. We do not need to know French literature before Voltaire in order to feel, although the lurking parody may escape us, that he is poking fun at us and at himself. His laughter at his own methods grows more unmistakable at the last, when he caricatures them by casually assembling six fallen monarchs in an inn at Venice.

    A modern assailant of optimism would arm himself with social pity. There is no social pity in Candide. Voltaire, whose light touch on familiar institutions opens them and reveals their absurdity, likes to remind us that the slaughter and pillage and murder which Candide witnessed among the Bulgarians was perfectly regular, having been conducted according to the laws and usages of war. Had Voltaire lived to-day he would have done to poverty what he did to war. Pitying the poor, he would have shown us poverty as a ridiculous anachronism, and both the ridicule and the pity would have expressed his indignation.

    Almost any modern, essaying a philosophic tale, would make it long. Candide is only a Hamlet and a half long. It would hardly have been shorter if Voltaire had spent three months on it, instead of those three days. A conciseness to be matched in English by nobody except Pope, who can say a plagiarizing enemy steals much, spends little, and has nothing left, a conciseness which Pope toiled and sweated for, came as easy as wit to Voltaire. He can afford to be witty, parenthetically, by the way, prodigally, without saving, because he knows there is more wit where that came from.

    One of Max Beerbohm's cartoons shows us the young Twentieth Century going at top speed, and watched by two of his predecessors. Underneath is this legend: The Grave Misgivings of the Nineteenth Century, and the Wicked Amusement of the Eighteenth, in Watching the Progress (or whatever it is) of the Twentieth. This Eighteenth Century snuff-taking and malicious, is like Voltaire, who nevertheless must know, if he happens to think of it, that not yet in the Twentieth Century, not for all its speed mania, has any one come near to equalling the speed of a prose tale by Voltaire. Candide is a full book. It is filled with mockery, with inventiveness, with things as concrete as things to eat and coins, it has time for the neatest intellectual clickings, it is never hurried, and it moves with the most amazing rapidity. It has the rapidity of high spirits playing a game. The dry high spirits of this destroyer of optimism make most optimists look damp and depressed. Contemplation of the stupidity which deems happiness possible almost made Voltaire happy. His attack on optimism is one of the gayest books in the world. Gaiety has been scattered everywhere up and down its pages by Voltaire's lavish hand, by his thin fingers.

    Many propagandist satirical books have been written with Candide in mind, but not too many. To-day, especially, when new faiths are changing the structure of the world, faiths which are still plastic enough to be deformed by every disciple, each disciple for himself, and which have not yet received the final deformation known as universal acceptance, to-day Candide is an inspiration to every narrative satirist who hates one of these new faiths, or hates every interpretation of it but his own. Either hatred will serve as a motive to satire.

    That is why the present is one of the right moments to republish Candide. I hope it will inspire younger men and women, the only ones who can be inspired, to have a try at Theodore, or Militarism; Jane, or Pacifism; at So-and-So, the Pragmatist or the Freudian. And I hope, too, that they will without trying hold their pens with an eighteenth century lightness, not inappropriate to a philosophic tale. In Voltaire's fingers, as Anatole France has said, the pen runs and laughs.

    Philip Littell.

    CONTENTS

    I. How Candide was brought up in a Magnificent Castle, and how he was expelled thence

    II. What became of Candide among the Bulgarians

    III. How Candide made his escape from the Bulgarians, and what afterwards became of him

    IV. How Candide found his old Master Pangloss, and what happened to them

    V. Tempest, Shipwreck, Earthquake, and what became of Doctor Pangloss, Candide, and James the Anabaptist

    VI. How the Portuguese made a Beautiful Auto-da-fé, to prevent any further Earthquakes: and how Candide was publicly whipped

    VII. How the Old Woman took care of Candide, and how he found the Object he loved

    VIII. The History of Cunegonde

    IX. What became of Cunegonde, Candide, the Grand Inquisitor, and the Jew

    X. In what distress Candide, Cunegonde, and the Old Woman arrived at Cadiz; and of their Embarkation

    XI. History of the Old Woman

    XII. The Adventures of the Old Woman continued

    XIII. How Candide was forced away from his fair Cunegonde and the Old Woman

    XIV. How Candide and Cacambo were received by the Jesuits of Paraguay

    XV. How Candide killed the brother of his dear Cunegonde

    XVI. Adventures of the Two Travellers, with Two Girls, Two Monkeys, and the Savages called Oreillons

    XVII. Arrival of Candide and his Valet at El Dorado, and what they saw there

    XVIII. What they saw in the Country of El Dorado

    XIX. What happened to them at Surinam and how Candide got acquainted with Martin

    XX. What happened at Sea to Candide and Martin

    XXI. Candide and Martin, reasoning, draw near the Coast of France

    XXII. What happened in France to Candide and Martin

    XXIII. Candide and Martin touched upon the Coast of England, and what they saw there

    XXIV. Of Paquette and Friar Giroflée

    XXV. The Visit to Lord Pococurante, a Noble Venetian

    XXVI. Of a Supper which Candide and Martin took with Six Strangers, and who they were

    XXVII. Candide's Voyage to Constantinople

    XXVIII. What happened to Candide, Cunegonde, Pangloss, Martin, etc.

    XXIX. How Candide found Cunegonde and the Old Woman again

    XXX. The Conclusion

    I

    HOW CANDIDE WAS BROUGHT UP IN A MAGNIFICENT CASTLE, AND HOW HE WAS EXPELLED THENCE.

    In a castle of Westphalia, belonging to the Baron of Thunder-ten-Tronckh, lived a youth, whom nature had endowed with the most gentle manners. His countenance was a true picture of his soul. He combined a true judgment with simplicity of spirit, which was the reason, I apprehend, of his being called Candide. The old servants of the family suspected him to have been the son of the Baron's sister, by a good, honest gentleman of the neighborhood, whom that young lady would never marry because he had been able to prove only seventy-one quarterings, the rest of his genealogical tree having been lost through the injuries of time.

    The Baron was one of the most powerful lords in Westphalia, for his castle had not only a gate, but windows. His great hall, even, was hung with tapestry. All the dogs of his farm-yards formed a pack of hounds at need; his grooms were his huntsmen; and the curate of the village was his grand almoner. They called him My Lord, and laughed at all his stories.

    The Baron's lady weighed about three hundred and fifty pounds, and was therefore a person of great consideration, and she did the honours of the house with a dignity that commanded still greater respect. Her daughter Cunegonde was seventeen years of age, fresh-coloured, comely, plump, and desirable. The Baron's son seemed to be in every respect worthy of his father. The Preceptor Pangloss[1] was the oracle of the family, and little Candide heard his lessons with all the good faith of his age and character.

    Pangloss was professor of metaphysico-theologico-cosmolo-nigology. He proved admirably that there is no effect without a cause, and that, in this best of all possible worlds, the Baron's castle was the most magnificent of castles, and his lady the best of all possible Baronesses.

    It is demonstrable, said

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