Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5641 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-25
• Binding: Paperback
• 112 pages

Synopsis
Brought up in the household of a powerful Baron, Candide is an open-minded young man, whose tutor, Pangloss, has instilled in him the belief that 'all is for the best'. But when his love for the Baron's rosy-cheeked daughter is discovered, Candide is cast out to make his own way in the world. And so he and his various companions begin a breathless tour of Europe, South America and Asia, as an outrageous series of disasters befall them - earthquakes, syphilis, a brush with the Inquisition, murder - sorely testing the young hero's optimism.

Customer Reviews

Everything really is for the best!
I thoroughly enjoyed this little gem by the much celebrated French philosopher. Slightly suprised by its short length and its relative tameness, I nonetheless loved the satirical view of the turbulent times in Europe in the 18th Century. I almost couldn't believe that it was written 250 years ago as it was so so sharp and snappy. The protagonist, Candide is a naive young man thrust on the world armed only with his belief in the popular philosophy of the time that "we live in the best of all possible worlds" which has been drummed into him by Dr Pangloss, who is a parody of German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz. He repeats this optimimistic mantra throughout his travels round half the world, even when faced with ludicrous hardships, until his sufferings become so numerous and frequent that he becomes disilusioned.

Voltaire pokes fun at the government, the monarchy, religion, marriage and philosopy, and over the course of the book he dismantles the theory that "everything is for the best". The book is skillfully written, witty and fast paced. An absolute classic and a must read!

All is for the best in this world
Candide is an ambitious book. It should be an example for all `would-be' writers all over the world. It is not less than a frontal attack on the greatest philosopher of Voltaire's time, Leibniz, for whom the world he lived in was `the best possible'.
'Dear Pangloss (= know everything), when you were hanged, dissected, cruelly beaten, did you still think that everything was for the best in this word?' `I still hold my original opinion', replied Pangloss, `since Leibniz cannot be wrong.'

This eventful text running with dazzling speed is a masterful mockery of Leibniz's philosophy with its `causes and effects', `sufficient reasons', `(non)contingent events', `freedoms and necessities', `(pre-established ) harmonies', `souls and evils' and `natural laws':
`You expect to eat a Jesuit today; nothing could be more just, for natural law teaches us to kill our neighbor. If we don't exercise the right to eat him, it's because we have other things to make a good meal of.'

Voltaire is a fundamental pessimist: `Men have always slaughtered each other; they have always been liars, traitors, ingrates and thieves, cowardly, envious, greedy, ambitious, bloodthirsty, slanderous, lecherous, fanatical, hypocritical and foolish.'
His philosophical solution is a flight from this brutal reality: `let's work without theorizing; it's the only way to make life bearable.' The only thing left is `cultivate our garden.'
This is a cowardly, selfish non-solution, to use Voltaire's own terms. Closing one's eyes for the realities of this world should not be an option.
But how did Voltaire cultivate his garden? He profited handsomely from the slave trade. He even agreed that a ship for slave transport was named after him! A not so magnificent example of gardening.

However, this brilliant `cooking' of a philosopher's key ideas is a must read for all lovers of world literature. It should be a challenge for all ambitious writers.

Worth the read...
This, my first real exposure to Voltaire was certainly an enlightening one. Candide is almost nonsensical fiction liberally sprinkeled with discussion of metaphysics. Candide, our protagonist, is banished from his childhood home after being seen to kiss the Baron's daughter and is forced into the world in a time of great turbulence armed only with the teachings of his tutor Pangolass and his theory of optimism. As he struggles to realise that all doesn't turn out for the best and that hard work is the best cure for philosphical musing he runs into an extraordinary array of characters from his childhood sweetheart to a woman who had to sacrifice one buttock to allow Janissery's under siege to survive. In admist his travels ranging from El Darado to Constantinople he slowly realises the meaning of life (or lack off) and the nature of man. Voltaire uses this novel as a satarical attack to ridicule those he was in contempt off and unfortunately many of the religious sects he turns his attention to have now faded into obscurity. Therefore for the modern day reader the end notes are a source of frequent consultation. Despite this constant flicking Candide is an enjoyable read and one worth pursuing.