Candide - Softcover

Voltaire

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1438531427 ISBN 13: 9781438531427

Publisher: Book Jungle, 2009

Synopsis

Everything which permeates and controls the lives of men is taken to task--romance, science, philosophy, and religion. Naive Candide experiences a series of incredible adventures from which he rebounds maintaining his "sweet" countenance. Voltaire was a colorful figure in Paris in the time just before both France and America began turbulent revolutions for their freedom. Voltaire was a 17th century writer philosopher and supporter of social reform. He spoke openly in defense of civil liberties and freedom of religion. His satires often poked fun at the Catholic Church and other French institutions. Voltaire along with other authors of the Enlightenment period was influential in the American and French Revolutions. Voltaire was a prolific letter writer having written over 21,000 letters. As a young outspoken poet in Paris, Voltaire was often in trouble with the crown. Candide is a satire on the philosophy of optimism. Candide, a gentle and sensible young man, is witness to an unending string of evil disasters and personal calamities, all the while being told by his philosopher-teacher, Pangloss, that all is for the best in the best of possible worlds.

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Review

Political satire doesn't age well, but occasionally a diatribe contains enough art and universal mirth to survive long after its timeliness has passed. Candide is such a book. Penned by that Renaissance man of the Enlightenment, Voltaire, Candide is steeped in the political and philosophical controversies of the 1750s. But for the general reader, the novel's driving principle is clear enough: the idea (endemic in Voltaire's day) that we live in the best of all possible worlds, and apparent folly, misery and strife are actually harbingers of a greater good we cannot perceive, is hogwash.

Telling the tale of the good-natured but star-crossed Candide (think Mr. Magoo armed with deadly force), as he travels the world struggling to be reunited with his love, Lady Cunegonde, the novel smashes such ill-conceived optimism to splinters. Candide's tutor, Dr. Pangloss, is steadfast in his philosophical good cheer, in the face of more and more fantastic misfortune; Candide's other companions always supply good sense in the nick of time. Still, as he demolishes optimism, Voltaire pays tribute to human resilience, and in doing so gives the book a pleasant indomitability common to farce. Says one character, a princess turned one-buttocked hag by unkind Fate: "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?"--Michael Gerber

Book Description

In this new translation of Voltaire’s best-known work, distinguished translator Burton Raffel captures the irreverent spirit of Candide and renders the novel in clear, vivacious English. Stylistically superior to all predecessors, Raffel’s version now stands as the translation of choice for twenty-first-century readers.

 

About this edition

• Publisher: Book Jungle
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1438531427
• ISBN 13: 9781438531427
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 119