Candide [Anglais] [Broché]

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.

While Candide is a great book, this translation (the Dover Thrift Edition) has but one merit, and that is its low cost. Not only does the translator (anonymous) use archaic language to render in English a book that was written in modern French, but he misuses it. While one could make a case for using 'thou' when Voltaire used the informal 'tu', this translator uses it seemingly at random. He reverses the meaning of at least one line and skips several words for no apparent reason. If you want to read Candide, either find a better translation than this or read the original.

Born in 1694, Francois-Marie Arouet de Voltaire, the renowned Parisian satirist known simply as Voltaire was truly my kind of guy. He was a rebellious free-thinker who did not tow the societal line of unchallenged conformity. He challenged the acceptable norms of his time and went against the grain by not accepting the status quo of religious dogma; and he paid the consequences for it too. After spending time in the Bastille, a state prison that stood for the absolute despotism of the Ancient Regime, he was eventually released only on the condition that he leave France. Fortunately, his departure was not his demise, having produced many worthy efforts in satire following his exile.

Of course, his works were, in my view, a reaction to madness of the era in which he lived. Having the luxury of hindsight, which is often said to be "20/20," it seems to me that what was seen as nonconformity then, was really just sensibility and enlightenment. Born only ten years prior to the death of the great English philosopher John Locke, Voltaire lived in the same era that produced David Hume, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Isaac Newton, and Immanuel Kant. Indeed, Voltaire lived in the Age of Enlightenment.

Like Jonathan Swift (who influenced Voltaire in the genre of satire), Voltaire had the ability to tell an absurd story in the most natural manner with notable wit, clarity, and polish. As such, Candide is a very manageable read, and an enjoyable one at that; even for those with little time on their hands. It is as much a classic of satirical literature as any other ever written.

Voltaire wrote Candide at the age of sixty-five as a response, in the form of satirical mockery, to the optimism of Leibniz. "Everything is for the best in the best of worlds..." said the optimists. In Candide, both optimism and pessimism are personified and explored in the characters of the book. At the time Candide was written, Voltaire clearly had already lived a long, full life with many experiences to draw discernment from. What he witnessed and experienced in his life contradicted the philosophy and absolute certainty of the optimists; or at least, it proved to him that the optimists were only half-correct (or half-incorrect, depending on your perspective!). The duality of man, and of all the things in this world for that matter, was evident to him.

Simply put, the premise of Candide is based on a young and naive neophyte's (the title character) experiences in a harsh, rude, and cruel world. In nearly every instance, Candide's observations and experiences show him that mankind is a rather wicked animal. Accompanying these experiences are characters that embody optimism, which is personified by the character Pangloss; and pessimism is represented by the character Martin, who believes that man, "...is born to live either in convulsions of distress or the lethargy of boredom." One of the splendid qualities of this book lies in the fact that Voltaire accepted neither Martin's pessimism nor Pangloss's optimism at face value. Each perspective is explored and valued equally, allowing the reader to decide for themselves through reflective contemplation the merits of both views.

This book is without question, in my mind, a great classic. Everyone should read Voltaire's magnum opus, Candide, before they die.