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    Candide (Wisehouse Classics - with Illustrations by Jean-Michel Moreau)
    Candide (Wisehouse Classics - with Illustrations by Jean-Michel Moreau)
    Candide (Wisehouse Classics - with Illustrations by Jean-Michel Moreau)
    Ebook226 pages3 hours

    Candide (Wisehouse Classics - with Illustrations by Jean-Michel Moreau)

    By Voltaire

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    About this ebook

    "CANDIDE, OU L'OPTIMISME" is a French satire first published in 1759 by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment. It begins with a young man, Candide, who is living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism (or simply "optimism") by his mentor, Professor Pangloss. The work describes the abrupt cessation of this lifestyle, followed by Candide's slow, painful disillusionment as he witnesses and experiences great hardships in the world. Voltaire concludes with Candide, if not rejecting optimism outright, advocating a deeply practical precept, "we must cultivate our garden", in lieu of the Leibnizian mantra of Pangloss, "all is for the best" in the "best of all possible worlds."

    Candide is characterised by its sarcastic tone as well as by its erratic, fantastical and fast-moving plot. A picaresque novel with a story similar to that of a more serious Bildungs¬roman, it parodies many adventure and romance clichés, the struggles of which are caricatured in a tone that is mordantly matter-of-fact. Still, the events discussed are often based on historical happenings, such as the Seven Years' War and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. As philosophers of Voltaire's day contended with the problem of evil, so too does Candide in this short novel, albeit more directly and humorously. Voltaire ridicules religion, theologians, governments, armies, philosophies, and philosophers through allegory; most conspicuously, he assaults Leibniz and his optimism.

    As expected by Voltaire, Candide has enjoyed both great success and great scandal. Immediately after its secretive publication, the book was widely banned because it contained religious blasphemy, political sedition and intellectual hostility hidden under a thin veil of naïveté. However, with its sharp wit and insightful portrayal of the human condition, the novel has since inspired many later authors and artists to mimic and adapt it. Today, Candide is recognized as Voltaire's magnum opus and is often listed as part of the Western canon; it is among the most frequently taught works of French literature. The British poet and literary critic Martin Seymour-Smith listed Candide as one of the 100 most influential books ever written.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWisehouse Classics
    Release dateDec 11, 2015
    ISBN9789176371077
    Candide (Wisehouse Classics - with Illustrations by Jean-Michel Moreau)
    Author

    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 (Wisehouse Classics - with Illustrations by Jean-Michel Moreau)

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    • 5/5
      How droll.
    • 4/5
      "Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable."Candide is Voltaire's most popular philosophical novella, first published in 1759.Candide is a good-natured, illegitimate nephew of Baron Thunder-ten-Tronckh who lives in his uncle's castle in Westphalia, Germany. There Candide is taught the philosophy of Optimism – that a world overseen by a benevolent God, is the best of all possible worlds and all is ultimately for the best-by his tutor Pangloss.However, when Candide is caught in a moment of intimacy with the Baron's daughter, Cunegonde, Candide is thrown out of the castle. Candide, though, is unfazed by his expulsion, imbued as he is with Optimism. He is content to accept whatever life throws at him and finds himself recruited into the Prussian army and is exposed to the horrors of war."Never was anything so gallant, so well accoutred, so dashing and so well drilled as those two armies. Trumpets, Fifes, hautboys, drums and canon produced a harmony such as was never heard in hell. First the canon toppled about six thousand men on either side; then the muskets removed from the best of all possible worlds between nine and ten thousand scoundrels who were infesting its surface. Next the bayonet proved sufficient reason for the death of a few thousand more. The total may well have amounted to thirty thousand corpses. Candide trembled like a philosopher, and concealed himself as best he could for the duration of this heroic butchery."So begins a series of disastrous misadventures which sees him visit most of Europe and South America including the Utopian city of El Dorado. As travels he experiences more and more catastrophes whilst moments of good fortune are short-lived. The people he meets along the way also have their own tales of hardship. Candide comes close to shedding his faith in Optimism but faced with the alternatives continues to cling to it. ‘If this is the best of all possible worlds, what must the others be like!’Candide and his followers for a while set up home in a quiet rural cottage where they manage to find a tolerable existence. Each member of the household hones a skill with which they can contribute to them all finding happiness. However, Candide in particular, soon bores of this way of life and departs in search of further adventure. With this book Voltaire is attempting to satirise and attack the notion of Optimism, Candide’s journey from catastrophe to catastrophe, both natural and man-made, make a mockery of the philosophy. Voltaire was one of the most influential thinkers of the time. Here he seems to suggest that only by practical action can human suffering be eliminated but withdrawing from the world instead of engaging with it will only give short term relief as previous experiences are a reminder that misery still reigns elsewhere in the world. This idea still seems to have a ring of truth about it today in a world where protectionism and self-isolation of nations seems to be on the rise."Judge a man by his questions rather his answers."However, although I rather enjoyed the writing, in particular the humour in the later chapters, I didn't get as much out of it as I perhaps should have and feel that it's relevance has diminished with time.
    • 4/5
      I read this in university and enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, which I think happens to a lot of people when they read it.

      It's a crazy adventure story, with twists, and turns and even stranger characters. It revolves around Candide, a young man so named because he resembles a blank slate, for all the word and society to write on.

      There's so much to talk about within this book, even though it's so short I feel like Voltaire really crammed in some serious issues in the sparse number of pages he allocated himself. Some of the book has still stayed with me, and every once and a while I'll find myself quoting a line or two, or seeing Candide referred to in popular culture somewhere.

      His witty critiques and snarky comments helped to empower a population of people who needed a revolution.

      It looks intimidating, but I promise it's not as bad as it seems. In my opinion, it's worth it.
    • 1/5
      A man with a naive philosophy faces a series of tragedies around the world.1/4 (Bad).It's all bitter, derisive "wit" that reads like a summary of a novel. I don't understand what any modern reader would get out of this.
    • 5/5
      I took up reading so many other things at the same time, it took me longer to get through it than it should have. Otherwise, it’s a short read. Certainly a thought provoking one. It’s satirical and (in a good way) cynical. This may be the best possible world, but that would be to confuse everything as inherently good or “planned” in the human sense.
    • 5/5
      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.
    • 3/5
      A very famous novel, it is, first published in 1759. I remember only a small number of incidents but they have stuck after a half century, so...I'll call it a good book about human behaviour. I believe I read this in French...but I could have been doing a reread after doing it in English translation first.
    • 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.
    • 4/5
      I saw this at the Guthrie Theater in the late 80s and it was great; the story still holds up.
    • 4/5
      Absolutely hilarious, and extremely easy to read as well.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 4/5
      One of the many classics I am currently re-reading, 'Candide' still entertains me. I would credit its continued relevance as a satire on society and the human condition even though the vast majority of its contemporary references are now forgotten except by specialists and scholars. What touches the modern reader is the humour, the broad but hilariously irreverent characterisation (it had not struck me before how like Don Quixote and Sancho Panza are Candide and Cacambo), the sharpness of the satire, and the questioning philosophy. I would argue there are few more powerful books on the hold our acquisitive natures have on us and the futility of our greed, or on the merits of finding our personal gardens to cultivate.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 4/5
      A fun read, light and easy.
    • 5/5
      Its been a while since I wrote a review...its proving a lot easier to read than to write :)My first time to read Voltaire. Frankly, I chose Candide cause its a short novel (90 pages!) which should make it easier for me to plow through it. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to read (as opposed to the usual old school classics or philosophical tomes). And it was lots of fun (of the satirical kind). The topic, however, is all seriousness...its a debunking of the claim that everything that happens in our life happens for the best possible reason, whether we know or understand that reason or not (this is my own wording of Pangloss' - Candide's metaphysics teacher - maxim: we live in the best possible version of the world) .By putting Candide and the other characters into the most ridiculously horrific situations, Voltaire puts the doctrine of optimism (and every other form of organized thought) to its limits. If the optimists, the religious, the academics, etc., are wrong about the world (just look at the rampant evil and suffering in the world), how do we make sense of living?Voltaire proposes a solution that is incomplete and far from perfect, which makes the book all the more thought provoking and satisfying. The heaviest 90-page book I've read! My fear is that I may not have understood it enough.Will I recommend it to others? 100% yes!Will I read it again? Yes.Will I read the author's other works? If Candide is any indication of Voltaire's talent as a writer/thinker, then I think I will be looking forward to reading more of his works.Favorite Quote(s):Candide: 'But for what purpose was this world created then?'Martin: 'To drive us mad.'
    • 4/5
      In 1755 a massive earthquake rocked Lisbon, and the subsequent fires and tsunami destroyed an estimated 85% of the city. It’s hard to imagine the mindset at the time, but it’s not surprising that many saw it as a sign of divine judgment. Voltaire, on the other hand, saw it as evidence refuting the philosophy espoused by Leibniz that “all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds”. He wrote the satire “Candide, or Optimism” in 1759 as a result, publishing it under another name because it was so incendiary, ridiculing religion and governments in addition to Leibniz. In the novel the young hero Candide is being mentored by Pangloss who believes in the Liebniz’s optimistic philosophy. The book follows his travels all over the world, where he repeatedly sees evil, great violence, and the worst of mankind. The only exception is his sojourn in the mythical village of El Dorado, run by a society of rational people, but this is brief. In the end he is thoroughly disillusioned, but Voltaire doesn’t conclude without a ray of hope. His last line has remained with me for a couple of decades: “we must cultivate our garden” … another way I think of saying, think globally, but act locally. Don’t be wide-eyed and unrealistic about the goodness of God or man, but do what you can in your own little corner of the world to make it a better place. Maurois’ introduction to this edition says Voltaire in general “…wanted to show (a) that it is absurd to suppose that an omnipotent God, creator of Heaven and Earth, had chosen the Jews, a small tribe of Bedouin nomads, as His chosen people; (b) that the chronicle of that race (the Bible) was packed with incredible facts, obscenities, and contradictions…(c) that the Gospels, although more moral than the Old Testament, were nevertheless full of the gossipings of illiterate nobodies; and finally (d) that the disputes which set the sects at each other’s throats throughout eighteen centuries were foolish and unavailing.”Voltaire’s fiction here isn’t likely to blow you away but the message from 250 years ago and his clarity of thought as a leader of the Enlightenment may; for this I would recommend Candide.Quotes:On God:“But I confess that when I consider this globe, or rather this globule, I think that God has abandoned it to some malevolent being – with the exception of Eldorado. I’ve almost never seen a town that didn’t desire the ruin of some neighboring town, or a family that didn’t want to exterminate some other family. Everywhere in the world, the weak detest the strong and grovel before them, and the strong treat them like flocks of sheep to be sold for their meat and wool…”On humiliation:“They were immediately stripped as naked as monkeys, and so were my mother, our ladies-in-waiting and I. It’s amazing how quickly those gentlemen can undress people. But what surprised me even more was that they put their fingers in a place where we women usually allow nothing but the nozzle of an enema. This ceremony seemed very strange to me; that’s how we judge everything when we’ve never been outside our own country before. I soon learned that it was to find out whether we’d hidden any diamonds there. It’s a custom that’s been observed since time immemorial by all civilized seafaring nations. I later learned that the Knights of Malta never fail to practice it when they capture Turkish men and women. It’s a point of international law which always has been complied with.”On man’s nature:“’Do you believe,’ said Candide, ‘that men have always slaughtered each other as they do today, that they’ve always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates and thieves, weak, fickle, cowardly, envious, greedy, drunken, miserly, ambitious, bloodthirsty, slanderous, lecherous, fanatical, hypocritical and foolish?’‘Do you believe,’ said Martin, ‘that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they find them?’‘Yes, of course,’ said Candide.‘Well, then,’ said Martin. ‘if hawks have always had the same character, what makes you think men may have changed theirs?’‘Oh!’ said Candide. ‘There’s a big difference, because free will…’The discussion was still going on when they reached Bordeaux.”On prostitution:“…and forced to continue that abominable trade which seems so pleasant to you men, but which is nothing but an abyss of misery for us. I came to Venice to practice my profession. Oh sir, if you could only imagine what it’s like to be forced to caress without discrimination an old merchant, a lawyer, a monk, a gondolier or a priest, to be exposed to every kind of insult and abuse, to be often reduced to borrowing a skirt for some disgusting man to lift up, to be robbed by one man of what you’ve earned with another, to be blackmailed by magistrates, and to have nothing to look forward to except an atrocious old age, the workhouse and the garbage dump, you’d conclude that I’m one of the most wretched creatures in the world!’”On religion:“After the earthquake had destroyed three-quarters of Lisbon, the wise men of the country could think of no more effective way of avoiding total ruin than giving the populace a fine auto-da-fe. It was decided by the University of Coimbra that the sight of several people being slowly burned with great ceremony was an infallible means of preventing the earth from quaking.”On sex:“One day as Cunegonde was walking near the castle in the little wood known as ‘the park,’ she saw Dr. Pangloss in the bushes, giving a lesson in experimental physics to her mother’s chambermaid, a very pretty and docile little brunette. Since Lady Cunegonde was deeply interested in the sciences, she breathlessly observed the repeated experiments that were performed before her eyes. She clearly saw the doctor’s sufficient reason, and the operation of cause and effect. She then returned home, agitated and thoughtful, reflecting that she might be young Candide’s sufficient reason, and he hers.”On slavery:“’Yes sir,’ said the Negro, ‘it’s the custom. We’re given a pair of short trousers twice a year as our only clothing. If we get a finger caught under the millstone while we’re working in the sugar mills, they cut off the whole hand; and if we try to run away, they cut off one of our legs. I’ve been in both those situations. That’s the price of the sugar you eat in Europe.’”On suicide:“I’ve wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but I still love life. That ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our most pernicious inclinations. What could be more stupid than to persist in carrying a burden that we constantly want to cast off, to hold our existence in horror, yet cling to it nonetheless, to fondle the serpent that devours us, until it has eaten our heart?”On war:“Old men with wounds all over their bodies were watching the death throes of butchered women who clutched their children to their bloody breasts; girls who had been disemboweled after satisfying the natural needs of several heroes were breathing their last sighs; others, mortally burned, were shrieking for someone to hasten their death. The ground was strewn with brains and severed arms and legs.”And this one I chuckled over:“’You know England: are people as mad there as in France?’‘It’s another kind of madness,’ said Martin. ‘As you know, those two nations are fighting a war over a few acres of snow on the edge of Canada, and they’re spending more on that glorious war than the whole of Canada is worth.’”
    • 4/5
      My fourth time reading it?

      Teaching it this week (for the 3rd time).

      For plot summaries, see reviews below.

      Does Candide falter? Yes: Voltaire turns his attention to the literary scene in Paris for 5-7 pages (which means: 5-7% of the book). We can laugh at Voltaire inserting himself and his fellow writers into the book, but given the grand scope of the rest of the narrative, the insertion looks, and is, self-indulgent. Probably the clearest sign of the failure of those scenes is that they are by far the most difficult to teach.

      One wonders, however, about a philosophical novel written by a professional philosopher that ultimately destroys the legitimacy of doing philosophy, and one wonders--I wonder--about the novel's final, pessimistic promotion of political quietism. For those of you who think that 'tending one's garden' means a happy ending, remember what happens to the Baron and his family at the book's beginning....

      Oh, this edition is quite nice: a great deal of supplemental material saves on photocopying when you teach it. Recommended above the Dover edition or the regular Penguin edition...
    • 5/5
      Dizzying! Voltaire moves fast. Now Candide's in El Dorado in Paraguay...three pages later he's in Venice. I have the impression Voltaire gets bored easily.

      And I don't think it would hurt to read this twice: once with all the footnotes and once without. They're important; this is one of those books that references a ton of other crap, so you're better off learning about it. But they slow the story down, of course; my guess is that I spent about as much time reading footnotes as I did reading the story itself. And that's particularly damaging with this book, because (as I said) it's a breakneck story.

      I started to re-read it on the spot, but that was too soon. I got bored. Maybe in a few months.

      Anyway...yeah, man. I really liked this. I thought it was super awesome dope.
    • 5/5
      I'm not sure why it took me so long to pick up Candide and after finishing the book, I'm definitely upset with my younger self. This is Voltaire at his cattiest and it makes for great reading. He spares no one in his attacks against religion, philosophy, society, and romance. Candide is the protagonist, although readers will find he feels more like a whipping boy. He is painfully naïve and has been indoctrinated by his philosophy teacher Pangloss to believe everything happens to a man for the sole purpose of transporting him to a better situation. Naturally, Voltaire plays with the Leibnizian philosophy by putting Candide into extremely horrible situations and showing the character to have no belief other than things must keep happening so that an even better situation will befall him. Voltaire also shows his readers the hypocrisies of religion and the ironies of claiming to love someone whom you do not truly know. This is a quick read mainly because it is so fast paced and entertaining. Through word play and excessive gore, it's nearly impossible to set down the book. My only complaint with Candide is the simplicity of its content, but when one considers this as it was originally intended, as a barebones and intelligent satire, it's not exactly fair to expect better chapter transitions or less abrupt scene changes. Voltaire has succeeded in producing a rhetorical monster applicable to any age which also functions as an engaging novel.
    • 5/5
      When I promised myself to read as many of the classics as possible and give works of that category a special preference, Candide waited at the top of my list. Short in length but not laughs, this book served as probably my clearest introduction to satire, and who better to lead the way into the genre than Voltaire himself? Trapped in a critique of unbridled optimism, the characters suffer one tragedy or cruelty after another - and yet, though powerful in delivering the point, somehow through all the misery the tale still abounds with moments of hilarity. Timeless questions of the human experience parade throughout the story, disguised under layers of sarcasm and wit. Readers may feel shocked one moment, but need only turn a few pages to laugh out loud. As a quick, entertaining, yet covertly heavy read, the piece makes a great entry point to the work of satirists - or just a masterful diversion into "the best of all possible worlds," depending on your perspective.
    • 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
      What a humorous ride. I really enjoyed this classic. Candide learns many lessons of Loyalty, Love, Trust and Money. It is so well written, it was fun to read.
    • 3/5
      It is a rather depressing book, but it is interesting, and it will raise a multitude of questions in your head.
    • 4/5
      Reading older classics is always an interesting proposition. You have the challenge of translation. You have the challenge of societal changes. And you have the challenge of a different human condition. However, when a classic is truly a “classic”, you also have a work’s ability to transcend those issues with a tale that is, at its core, about human beings – human beings we can relate to no matter what ancient trappings they live in.Candide pulls this off. Yes, a lot of the references are old. And we can’t completely empathize with such struggles as the Spanish Inquisition or long sea voyages or debates among Socinians and Manichaeans and other Christian sects. But we can understand the inner turmoil of someone struggling to understand why bad things happen to “good” people.And, again in spite of the impact time has had on the relevance of some of the material, the satire is still spot on. Sure we don’t have royalty and landed gentry. But it is very easy to translate these into today’s politicians and businessmen.No, it is not a perfect book. Time has had too much time to make its changes. But it still has relevance. And it has relevance without being preachy. In other words, still a lot of fun to read.
    • 3/5
      Voltaire wrote this under a pseudonym as a satyrical critique to the popular philosophy of the day whereby we live in the best possilble world. It reads as a (rather long) series of atrocities and misfortunes that happen to just about every person Candice encounters during his rather curious adventures.
      An interesting read in it's historical and philosophical context, but rather tough read without it.
    • 3/5
      Voltaire's famous romp through his philosophy & grudges. Introduces the character Pangloss - the eternal optimist - "everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds".Read in Samoa Apr 2003
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 5/5
      Candide by François-Marie Arouet, also known as Voltaire, was published in 1759 during the European 'enlightenment’ and at the time was banned as blasphemous, and politically seditious – Candide pokes a lot of fun at the establishment of the day. Voltaire was a sharp witty man, and (the two don’t often seem to go together) a philosopher, who strongly opposed certain Enlightenment ideas about social class. Candide is a naive young man who grows up in a baron’s castle. His tutor Pangloss teaches him that this is “the best of all possible worlds.” Candide is discovered kissing the baron’s daughter, his secret love, and is expelled from his home. He wanders the world with Pangloss, surviving the most awful disasters and tortures, while Pangloss continues to describe life as ‘the best of all possible worlds”. Shortly after reading this novella, I saw the film Oh, Lucky Man, staring Malcolm McDowell, a sprawling musical intended as an allegory on life in the 20th century. I could not help linking the two stories. I still to this day believe that the screenplay takes its inspiration from Candide.

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    Candide (Wisehouse Classics - with Illustrations by Jean-Michel Moreau) - Voltaire

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