Candide

By Voltaire

A young man, Candide, is living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism by his mentor, Professor Pangloss. This lifestyle ends abruptly followed by Candide's slow, painful disillusionment as he witnesses and experiences great hardships in the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Interactive Media
• Release date: Jul 8, 2016
• ISBN: 9781911495338

Voltaire

Voltaire was the pen name of François-Marie Arouet (1694–1778)a French philosopher and an author who was as prolific as he was influential. In books, pamphlets and plays, he startled, scandalized and inspired his age with savagely sharp satire that unsparingly attacked the most prominent institutions of his day, including royalty and the Roman Catholic Church. His fiery support of freedom of speech and religion, of the separation of church and state, and his intolerance for abuse of power can be seen as ahead of his time, but earned him repeated imprisonments and exile before they won him fame and adulation.

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Reviews for Candide

[xiaomarlo · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[gazzy_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Classic modern fable exploring the once popular philosophy of 'everything now is exactly as it should be and for the best' with comedic results.

[terrapinjetta_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Absolutely hilarious, and extremely easy to read as well.

[wenestvedt_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I saw this at the Guthrie Theater in the late 80s and it was great; the story still holds up.

[schufman · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[therebelprince · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Juvenal once said, "It is difficult not to write satire", meaning that even if he put ink to paper with different intentions, his worldview would press him on in one direction. He and Voltaire would have got along famously, I suspect.

[signature103 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[bookomaniac-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Zeker mooiste verhaal van Voltaire. Episodisch opgebouwd, maar met duidelijke lijn: de Bildung van Candide; ontluistering van het verhaal van Pangloss en tussendoor de traditionele stokpaardjes van Voltaire.

[kristelh_15 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was a fun read even though I wouldn't agree with Voltaire's philosophy and deism. The story is a fun journey tale of Candide. Candide is kicked out of the best possible castle and travels through Europe with his philosopher friends to the Americas, to Eldorado (truly the best possible place) and then back to Europe. Candide pursues his true love only to find her grown ugly by the time he finds her. In the end he decides that work is the only way to avoid boredom, vice and poverty and states "we must cultivate our garden".

[thatotter-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Too much rape and calamity.

[steadfastreader · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's a sweet little satire. Easy and fun, it reads like a fable. I'm not sure that I get the more complicated satirical meanings - seeing as how it was written in the eighteen century... but it's definitely full of quips that you could use.

[lisa.johnson.james · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Wow, LOL. This book in some ways reminded me of Carroll's Through the Looking Glass & Wonderland. It was truly a fantastically spun tale of grave misfortune, meetings by chance, the strength of a love, & the ending in a quiet place where to work is to be happy. It's actually QUITE funny in places, but the telling can be so far fetched that you may have to put it down a time or two, walk away, clear your head, then come back, even though it is a very short piece!

[jsamaha-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I know that I'm supposed to love Candide. I know that it is a classic and brilliant and satirical and everything else that has ever been said about it. Really, I do know that but I just didn't like it.

I get that Voltaire was trying to prove a point with the adventures and beliefs of Candide but the story was just so negative. I felt so bad for poor Candide. It was hard for me to continue reading knowing that Candide was just going to have more outrageously horrible things happen to him.

Before you yell at me, remember that I know the purpose of Candide's story. Voltaire was living during a time of great philosophical thought and he was using this story to satirize the politics and religious fervor of the mid eighteenth century. I just felt that as a novel (novella?) it was not very enjoyable. Voltaire comes across as so negative. I may read Candide a second time (especially when I am not dealing with the flu) and give Voltaire a second chance to charm me.

[madepercy-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[jillkenna · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This tiny little book took me 8 days to read. Not because it was boring, the writing is just harder to read in this day and age (to me anyway).

[lynnb_64 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is my second read of Candide. I was inspired to do so after reading a biography of Voltaire. I enjoyed the book more, I think, with more of the context of Voltaire's life...or maybe I'm just older and wiser!This isn't my kind of book....too much plot, not enough character development. But, like many reviewers, I think the book raises issues that remain relevant today, and that made it thought-provoking. A true classic.

[supersam_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

all about the human struggle, very well written

[gravitythread · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great satire right on par with Johnathan Swift in Gullivers Travels.

[p_s_patrick · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[pocketmermaid · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[poreilly_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I was disappointed by this book, which I had always heard described as "great literature." Instead, I thought Candide was mostly silly and fantastical. There was a deeper unlying theme having to do with the nature of the universe and whether to view the human condition within nature with optimism or pessimism, but the discussions regarding the foregoing, while cropping up often, were superfiscial.

[shanetierney_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Very important book, not necessarily a very good book.

[mikemillertime · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"Candide" is a black comedy whose punchlines usually involve the innocent narrator being ruthlessly whipped for no good reason whatsoever. Still, the book has a remarkably evolved worldview given its age, playing as a broad satire and loose mockery of preconceived notions of virtue, morality, faith and justice. Filled with dated allusions to current events, the book is still an enjoyable romp of a read, especially at a lightweight 90 pages.

[booksfordinner · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[ireadby · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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!!

[robert.zimmermann · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was pretty funny. I didn't understand most of the satire being that it was written well before my time, but I got the overall sense that it was humorous and quite enjoyable.

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Although I was familiar with the story of Candide from having seen the musical based on it in Stratford, Ontario some time ago, I had never read the book. My library's electronic media site had a copy available as an audiobook so I thought I would give it a try. It's fantastical, satirical but fun to listen to so I'm glad I did.Candide was brought up in a German castle by his uncle, the Baron Thunder-ten-Tronckh, with his uncle's children, Cunegonde and her brother. They are tutored by Dr. Pangloss who espouses optimism and tells his charges that they live in the best of all possible worlds and that whatever happens is for the best. Candide loves Cunegonde but when he is found kissing her his uncle throws him out of the castle. Soon after the castle is attacked. Pangloss escaped and he is reunited by happenstance with Candide. Pangloss tells Candide that everyone, including Cunegonde, was killed in the attack. Pangloss and Candide end up in the hands of the Catholic Inquisition in Lisbon where they are sentenced to death but Candide escapes as a result of a "lucky" earthquake. However, he saw Pangloss hung so he is despondent. Then he finds Cunegonde alive although prostituting herself and Candide rescues her. They leave for the New World where Candide and Cunegonde are separated once again and Candide has more near-misses with death. And on and on it goes with people who were thought to be dead turning up alive more often than you can imagine. Eventually Candide rejects Pangloss's philosophy of optimism. Instead he believes "we must all cultivate our garden".My take on this is that we should work to determine our own future and not rely on fate to work things out for us. I think I tend to this philosophy as well but it is certainly a question that has puzzled people throughout the ages.

[caseybp · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fun and comic read. Easy to get through and hysterical.

[bdtrump · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book would have been much easier to read as a contemporary to Voltaire, although far from impossible to enjoy. It can be funny, but the style is choppy and the story jumps from one disjointed plot twist to the next. A classic, but perhaps not for everyone.

[trilliams · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Entertaining, satirical, short. Feels like a 100-page YouTube comment troll. We should all be so fortunate as to accidentally kill someone and then find out they're still alive.