Candide
By Voltaire
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Voltaire
Imprisoned in the Bastille at the age of twenty-three for a criminal libel against the Regent of France, François-Marie Arouet was freed in 1718 with a new name, Voltaire, and the completed manuscript of his first play, Oedipe, which became a huge hit on the Paris stage in the same year. For the rest of his long and dangerously eventful life, this cadaverous genius shone with uninterrupted brilliance as one of the most famous men in the world. Revered, and occasionally reviled, in the royal courts of Europe, his literary outpourings and fearless campaigning against the medieval injustices of church and state in the midst of the ‘Enlightenment’ did much to trigger the French Revolution and to formulate the present notions of democracy. But above all, Voltaire was an observer of the human condition, and his masterpiece Candide stands out as an astonishing testament to his unequalled insight into the way we were and probably always will be.
Read more from Voltaire
50 Great Love Letters You Have To Read (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Philosophy of History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Voltaire Collection Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Candide: The Original Unabridged And Complete Edition (Voltaire Classics) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Candide: Bilingual Edition (English – French) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTratado sobre la tolerancia Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Complete Works of Voltaire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHarvard Classics: All 71 Volumes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCandide: Illustrated Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Philosophical Dictionary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Candide: Bilingual Edition (English – German) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPhilosophical Letters: (Letters Concerning the English Nation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Voltaire: Treatise on Tolerance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTHE AGE OF LOUIS XIV Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Greatest Books of All Time Vol. 3 (Dream Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSeventeen Plays by Voltaire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsZadig and Other Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Age Of Louis XIV (Complete Edition) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Candide
Related ebooks
Candide: New Revised Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCandide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCandide: or, The Optimist: Bestsellers and famous Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 2, July, 1850. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCandide (Illustrated by Adrien Moreau with Introductions by Philip Littell and J. M. Wheeler) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Candide: Illustrated Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Scaramouche: A Romance of the French Revolution Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVoltaire's Romances Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAppreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCandide: A Timeless Classic Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Scaramouche Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAppreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Eye of Zeitoon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe life of Voltaire Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCandide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Rabbi of Lud Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Devil's Bed Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVoltaire's Romances, Complete in One Volume Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poems and Prose Poems of Charles Baudelaire with an Introductory Preface by James Huneker Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDON QUIXOTE DE LA MANCHA: Volume II (first published in the year 1615) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDon Quixote de la Mancha: Volume I (the 1605 Publication) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Banner of the Bull Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Brotherhood of Consolation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Collected Works of Rafael Sabatini: 100+ Novels, Short Stories and Historical Writings Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsParis Spleen Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVerner's Pride Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Essential Works of Voltaire: Philosophical Writings, Novels, Historical Works, Poetry, Plays & Letters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Satire For You
Candy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Utopia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Am A Cat Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5House of Cards Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Faggots Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heart Sutra Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHeart of a Dog Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Pressed Fairy Journal of Madeline Cottington Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51900: Or; The Last President Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Futurological Congress Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Turtle Recall: The Discworld Companion . . So Far Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kill for Love Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Line to Kill: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Third Policeman: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Friday Black Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Crimson Petal and the White: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bestseller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As I Lay Dying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Confessions of a Domestic Failure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Master & Margarita Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A History of the African-American People (Proposed) by Strom Thurmond: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe White Boy Shuffle: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Between the Bridge and the River: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Trout Fishing in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Living Girl on Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Clown Brigade Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dice Man: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bonfire of the Vanities: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Candide
117 ratings129 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hilarious! 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.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Classic modern fable exploring the once popular philosophy of 'everything now is exactly as it should be and for the best' with comedic results.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Absolutely hilarious, and extremely easy to read as well.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I saw this at the Guthrie Theater in the late 80s and it was great; the story still holds up.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Very 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.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Juvenal 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.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Zeker 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.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A dark, comic, and biting satire. Whenever I revisit Candide, I always find Voltaire is making points which are relevant to contemporary events,
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This 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.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Frank 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.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This 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).
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This 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.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A complete and utter failure! Voltaire presents us with the premise that this is the best of all possible worlds, but only evil befalls his poor characters: scandal, conscription, rape, murder, pillage, mutilation, disease, disaster, inquisition, genocide, adultery, slavery, shipwreck, kicks in the backside, you name it. What the author was thinking of, I can scarcely imagine. I'm going back to my garden now.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Still funny, this sarcastic, cynical tale about the innocent young man learning about the ways of the world the hard way. "Why then was the world created?" " To drive us mad!"
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In a constant barrage of hilarious, yet fairly accurate to history horror show: another war between the french and the english, the Lisbon earthquake and the inquisition's response to it, colonialism; Candide barely survives "this best of all possible worlds" according to his philosophy professor and a popular doctrine of the time period proposed by Leibniz (the argument not being that this world is free of evil, but given our species, it's the best we can achieve - for if we were capable of optimizing our world in any facet, God would have created that one instead). His experiences teach him that humanity is shit overall:"Do you believe 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 that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they find them?"But in too small doses it does redeem itself individually. He ends with hope."Man cannot obliterate the cruelty of the universe, but by prudence he can shield certain small confines from that cruelty." Cultivate your garden!Pretty keen on Voltaire now.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great book. However, the Bantam Classic edition is only an ok translation. I got my copy for cheap. It tells the story but I'm sure there are other more scholarly translations I would choose if I were to read it again.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Zeker 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.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Interesting satire - wonderful narration.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tragedy and comedy presented in sharp contrast satirising the optimism of certain philosophies.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The 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."
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I 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.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Wish I knew what everyone sees in this one. I've known a few people who have claimed this as one of their favorite works, and to me, anyway, this book appears so slight when compared with other classical works. But then, allegory was never my favorite form of literature. I can completely understand Balzac, or Zola, or Flaubert. They were amazing writers, and you can get something new out of them with each reading, I think, depending upon what stage you are at in your own life. But it seems like there is a trend in French literature - the spare and esoteric work, the one that says, "this may not look like much, but it has Layers." I'm thinking especially of The Little Prince, this work, and possibly all of Camus. It may be very worthy. I'm sure the fault is mine here. But I just don't get it.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This major work by Voltaire is not quiet the way I imagined it. While I thought of a philosophical fictional story when buying the book, probably something comparable to Nietzsche's Zarathustra, it eventually turned out to be a very easy read with tons of humor in it. The story doesn't take itself seriously, it describes the very unlikely life of the noble Candide and his beloved princess who get around both worlds in a dystopian, sarcastically carried out way. On their way they get to know people whose lives are even more miserable then their own. One man they meet quiet a few times is a philosopher who has the opinion that everything in the world is perfect and nobody can complain. This philosophy of Optimism however seems to be the complete opposite of the countless miseries the protagonists run into. Although the philosopher does not want to reject his world view, it is quiet clear that he must be in error.I thought this book was both a good starting point for discussions about Optimism as well as an hilarious and easy read.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How droll.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5A 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.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I 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. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A 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.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I 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.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Candide, one of Voltaire's most popular works, is a sociopolitical satire in which the author uses the misadventures of the book's titular hero to argue against the philosophy of Leibnizian optimism. The gullible and naive Candide suffers through repeated misfortunes, often inspired by real historic events (Seven Years' War, Lisbon Earthquake), organizations (Jesuit Order, Portuguese Inquisition), individuals (Admiral John Bying, Abbe Trublet), and even the mythical land of El Dorado. This novella is bildungsroman coming-of-age narrative, and while many people compare it to Gulliver's Travels due to the scope and variety of Candide's travels, I was personally reminded of Samuel the Speaker by Upton Sinclair, which also features a young man whose world philosophy is constantly contradicted by the world itself. The Personally, my favorite companion of Candide's is the Manichaean scholar Martin, whose level-headed pessimistic view of mankind as a world full of idiots drives his frequent recommendations of throwing people out of windows and into oceans.Candide is fast-based and unrelenting, an epic journey in novella form full of black humor and theological debate as it tackles the concept of good versus evil and the nature of mankind.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Candide by Voltaire is a humorous satire featuring the ultimate optimist experiencing life from so many different angles that this optimism is sorely tested. First published in 1759, the main character is Candide and he and his various companions travel around the world from Europe to South America and eventually settle on a small farm outside of Constantinople. They experience amazing adventures and dangers and Candide’s personal motto of “everything in the world is for the best”, taught to him by his beloved mentor, becomes questionable by characters and readers alike.Voltaire’s style is often called absurd satire due to both the humor and the exaggeration that he inserts into the story. There has been so much written about this literary masterpiece that I won’t even begin to try to explain or analyze it in my meagre words, but, I can say that I was both surprised and delighted with this book. I read this in the form of installations and I looked forward to receiving a new section and learning what would happen next. The author missed no opportunity to skewer the religion, politics, morals and lifestyles of his time, and he put his characters into the most outrageous and outlandish situations that you really never knew what could possibly happen next.Candide is entirely accessible and highly readable. Voltaire gives his readers the gift of laughter, both at life in general and the people it contains. This “road-trip” book is short, entertaining and downright brilliant.