Candide and Related Texts

A great little satire filled with wit, sarcasm and ultimately distress. Candide lives a life of artificial optimism which ultimately turns to distress, rejection of religion and a decision to "cultivate one's garden". Candide Finds an idyllic place called El Dorado and leaves there a very wealthy man only to slide to near poverty. A delightful and thoughtful novel well worth the small investment of time.

A tumultuous and entertaining story incorporating improbability, optimism, pessimism, and fatalism, thrown together in a laugh inducing race through time and place. Yes. Exactly that. A short, satisfying book. I recommend it.

Picked this up after hearing a piece on NPR about the book. I enjoyed it, a classic that is easy to follow and a quick read. Covers a great deal about social issues and provides a unique perspective on them. Also pretty entertaining, would recommend it.

This was one of my assigned readings for a university-level world history class. It's a truly remarkable book, especially for being published in the18th century! While a lot of assigned readings seem grueling, Candide captivated me from start to finish. The symbolism and satire was clever and even made me laugh out loud. I recommend this book for people of all ages.

In addition, the price was definitely right. This is a big bonus for college students.

I bought this book because of the RUSH album Clockwork Angels. A very interesting album that you have to listen to a few times to really "get". Candide is somewhat the same way. It reminds me of a Renaissance version of Ecclesiastes to a certain degree, as Candide and his friends seem to face futility at every turn. In the end, we must tend our garden.

Well packaged and promptly shipped, at a very low price. This is the only translation of Zadig that is accurate, and reproduces the French in timbre and tone, as well as content. Mr. Frame's version is the only one that should ever be read, and Project Gutenberg should throw out the one they have and substitute this one.

Great story. A real classic that everyone should read. I love that many of these titles have become free due to the copyright expiring so you can get them easily and read them on your kindle anywhere, any time!

Short, fast-paced and to the point. Candide is such a poor and naive fellow, but his story is of great depth and understanding. Candide is really great food for thought for all levels of philosophical intellect, plus it's a great way to familiarize yourself with Voltaire. Also, it's such a cheap book, why not buy it and learn a little?

This book comes with a compilation of Voltaire's writings and a very insightful (and long) intro giving ample backstory to the writings in this book. Plus the writings themselves are fabulous. I highly recommend. Plus, the hardback copy comes with it's own page marker!

I studied Voltaire as an undergraduate in 1992. The professor's style of teaching and the crazy story impressed me. I recommend this book to everyone and challenge them to form parallels to their own life experiences.

I always remember the crazy optimistic comment: "Everything is for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds". These words, uttered by Candide at the most tragic of turns of event that suck in my mind. So I decided to read it again...funny how time changes outlook.

Everyone in the world should keep this book on their nightstand as a reference note on patience and faith that seasons do change and our factors of control most be loosened some to gain true happiness and that this idea has no known options. The bad will die and turn to the natural state, goodness wins every time as the goodness we were all born into, it really is ours!Overture to Candide

I have added this novelette to my favorite classics category. Voltaire went all out here in one of his few fictional novels. I see why it is considered as one of the top 100 classical literary masterpieces.

The book is pretty violent and horrific, but in all, it shows profound implications of Voltaire's perception of religion, and how "cultivating your own garden" means that we as a species create our own happiness. I would recommend it for any academic.

Bottom Line first: There is something presumptuous about attempting a critical review of something as classic and acclaimed as Voltaire‘s Candide. The official verdict is that this is great literature. I shall write naught to gainsay my betters. That said it can be hard for the modern reader to do better than to accept that the several hundred years of approval may not temper the problems of reading it several hundred years later. Recommendation: It may be that the best way to grasp what is a broad and darkly comic satire is the Operetta of the same name music by Lenard Bernstein and libretto by several besides Voltaire, including Lillian Hellman. Candide (1956 Original Broadway Cast)

Ok the Blah Blah Blah Part: A German natural philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, 1646 – 1716 argued that as God is a loving God and the maker of all things, the reality we live in the reality of choice by a loving God and therefore we live in the best of all possible worlds. The reader is advised to remember this, The Formula. The novella is a test of this conclusion. It is perhaps something of a spoiler to tell you that Voltaire is not impressed by the arguments of this philosophical polymath.

Our story opens in a palace in Westphalia, the 18th century cultural equivalent of the poorer and less desirable quarters of an unfashionable city. Here living in relative splendor of a backwater palace we find all of our major characters. Our leading male for whom the story is titled, Candide is the illegitimate son of a relative being raised among his betters including the love of his life Cunegunda. Plus various secondary characters not necessary for this discussion.

Very quickly the misadventures begin. Candide is run from his idyllic life and never again do we see the best and the balance shall be the possible. Cunegunda survives the destruction of her home and family and begins her adventures, more about anon.

Without listing the various evils and hurts our hero suffers; a few points. Everything he sees and suffers that argue against the 18th century being the best of all possible are things that actually happened. Evil is afoot in many forms often lead by seniors within the Catholic Church. Not to limit this to a shamming of the Church there is evil petty and grand from treacherous friends and servants to local politicals and businessmen. It is argued that the evil is a necessary thing to maintain a principal of proportionality but this case is made by the quickly dismissible Panglos (Pan=all Glos=talk) the broadly shamed stand-in for Leibniz.

There will be for Candide one happy interval in a land much like the Utopia dreamed up by friend to Voltaire, Thomas More. Later Candide will fall in with and benefit from friendship with cynical and more practical Martin, Martin Luther perhaps.
It is easy to fixate on the story of Candide and forget about Cunegunda. She is also subject to all of the vagaries of her sex. Instead of being sold off, I mean married off to some neighboring lordling in a commercial marriage, she is pushed in to a number of variations in the the other kinds of commerce based on young female flesh. At her side is a loyal old woman with but one buttock. Between the two we are regaled with the funny, only not so funny variations of evils set aside for 18th Century womankind.

So 75 pages of violence , treachery, petty and great wrongdoings and we are supposed to laugh? Ok maybe grim grins?
I suggest that Voltaire pretty much dismisses our magic ‘best of all possible…’ formula very quickly. The rest is a plea for tolerance and a condemnation of extremism. Especially were the most doctrinaire are also unlikely to be practicing much else that is admirable. Also the conclusion is not so much a refutation of The Formula, as it is a case for a simpler and bucolic life.

Final note on my edition. The quality of the translation is not something I can address. I can say that I liked the presence of so many extra pages of scholarly material.

Voltaire's dark humor and imagination for adventure make this classic easy to read and hard to put down. Also, these drop cap classics from penguin are wonderful. Solid build quality, creative design, and great size. This is a classic that everybody should read, if anything to find out where Eldorado comes from. But also to reflect on the fact that there's no way you have it as bad as this cast of characters.

Read this book in college, still love it now. The language can become slightly confusing (but hey, Shakespeare can be too), but I devoured this book in only a couple of days. It's the most classic satire anyone could ever hope to read, and it's a real kick in the pants.

Voltaire is a master saterist, not a comedian. As with all satire, it hslps if we understand the contemporary world in which the author writes, but Voltaire's skill raises Candide above this level of satirical writing. He is masterful in the use of comedy to poke fun at the customs, mores, and beliefs of his time and show us the silliness to shich theunenlightened mind can go in the pursuit of perfection in an imperfect world. As a commentator on human culture he is followed by Mark Twain. Not that Twain can match Voltaire in his skill, only in some of his perceptions. This is an "old" book by new world reckoning, but as a masterpiecce well worth the time and effort of exploaration it is a timeless masterpiece. I highly recommend it to both believer and non-believer.