Candide: Or Optimism (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

Voltaire, Francois

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140455108 ISBN 13: 9780140455106

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2009

Synopsis

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 naïve Candide, who doggedly believes that “all is for the best” even when faced with injustice, suffering, and despair. Controversial and entertaining, Candide is a book that is vitally relevant today in our world pervaded by—as Candide would say—“the mania for insisting that all is well when all is by no means well.”

For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

About this title

About the Author

Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer, satirist, the embodiment of the 18th-century Enlightenment. Among his best-known works is the satirical short story CANDIDE (1759).

Michael Wood (introducer) is currently Straut Professor of English at Princeton. His books include Stendhal, America in the Movies, The Magician's Doubts, Franz Kafka, and The Road to Delphi.

Theo Cuffe (translator) has also translated a selection of Voltaire's short stories for Penguin, Micromégas and Other Short Fictions.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140455108
• ISBN 13: 9780140455106
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 155