Candide: Or Optimism

by Voltaire and Francois Marie Arouet De Voltaire

Book Overview

Theo Cuffe's marvelous translation of Voltaire's satirical masterpiece
With its vibrant new translation and perceptive introduction this new edition of Voltaire's masterpiece belongs in the hands of every reader pondering our assumptions about human behavior and our place in the world. Candide tells of the hilarious adventures of the na ve Candide, who doggedly believes that "all is for the best" even when faced with injustice, suffering,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140455108
• ISBN13: 9780140455106
• Release Date: February 2009
• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Voltaire is having too much fun

For as short as Candide is, I can't imagine Voltaire having anything but a giggling grin on his face while making his secretary write it. Candide exists to poke endless fun at medieval-era writing styles and does so with gusto. And even without the context, it's written just slickly enough for the jokes to still land properly. A little short, but still fun to read regardless.

Entertaining

Candide is certainly humorous for those that understand medieval to early modern European history.This satire is cynical much like Erasmus' "Praise of Folly". Voltaire attacks many of the issues of European society. You do not need to be a historian to appreciate this work, or have a great knowledge of European history to understand it. Buy it and enjoy.

Great edition; better book

When I imagined what 18th-century literature would be like, I figured there'd be lots of dated, archaic humor and cultural references I'd never understand. CANDIDE, as it happens, contains anything but the former, and very few of the latter. In fact, this turned out to be the funniest book I've ever read--and I've read Pynchon, Vonnegut, and plenty of others. The absurdity of the novel and the nonchalance of its delivery are simply hilarious. Voltaire makes no attempt to conform to his time's--or even ours'--standard of decency: expect a slew of satire, an unprecedented (by 1759) dark sense of humor, and a message that the author will stop at nothing to convey. Voltaire will force his thesis down your throat, and you'll feel no desire to resist. Voltaire exposes the imperfection of our world and the fallacies of blind optimism with relentless wit and bluntness. Penguin's Deluxe Classics edition of this is very handsome, and has laugh-out-loud material plastered all across the cover and inside flaps of the book--though watch out; minor spoilers abound! This is a quick read, a classic, and a blast that you'll regret ends as soon as it does. Highly recommended.

Take a closer look at the cover!

I read Candide years ago; however, while looking through the shelves of the local bookstore I was stopped dead in my tracks by this new presentation. Enlarge the image of the new cover at the top of the page to be treated to a whimsical stick figure rendition of a majority of the story (complements of Chris Ware, some of his graphic novels include : The Acme Novelty Library, Quimby the Mouse and Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth). However, read the book, not just the cover, for one of the smartest satires ever written. Candide tells of the outrageous adventures of the naïve Candide, who steadfastly believes that "all is for the best" even when faced with the injustice, suffering, and despair of the world. Following his eviction from his home for a tryst with his stepsister, he sets out to find the "best of all possible worlds" that his mentor Dr. Pangloss cannot stop extolling. Althewhile Candide and his friends barely keep from being killed or tourtured at every turn. Controversial for its time (the 18th century) and entertaining still today; Candide is a book that is relevant even now in our society, where "the mania for insisting that all is well when all is by no means well" prevails. I am an avowed classics hater who could never make it through a single volume of anything in any Literature class. Never in a million years would I have picked up this book if not for a recommendation by Kurt Vonnegut in one of his autobiographical works. He highly recommended Candide, and being my favorite author, I could not help but be intrigued. I found it in the bookstore and it was short enough to read in one sitting. The sight of this clever new edition brought a wonderful work of literature back into my mind and I just had to read it again. Beware, if you do not have a sense of humor about the human condition or do not understand sarcasm, you may not like this. Everyone else, enjoy!

Action-packed, hilarious, vulgar ... brilliant!

Francois-Marie Arouet (pen name Voltaire) was one of the greatest thinkers of 18th-century Europe. In his brief novella CANDIDE -- which takes less than two hours to read -- he explains the purpose of human existence, with brilliant observations and witty humor. Voltaire offers up numerous philosophies devised by the greatest minds in history, none of which makes the remotest sense in the crazy, multi-continent, tragedy-ridden misadventures of Candide, his tutor Pangloss, his beloved Cunegonde, and the host of remarkable characters they meet. To call this novella episodic is an understatement. There is more plot in some paragraphs of CANDIDE than there is in most thousand-page epics. We hear countless tales of injustice, swindle, rape, torture, famine, murder, plague, earthquake, and war, but Voltaire presents them in such rapid-fire understatement that the tragedies become hilarious. (Most notable is the tale of the Old Lady losing half of her backside in a seige.) It is only after Candide and his band of comrades lose vast fortunes multiple times that they happen across a lifestyle that offers a moderate amount of enduring satisfaction......but I will not tell you how Voltaire says that you can find happiness and fulfillment. Next time you have a rainy afternoon with nothing to do, let Voltaire explain it himself.