About this title: Candide, the quintessential innocent, has been taught by his tutor, Pangloss, that "all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds." Gradually, Candide and his beloved, Cunegonde, learn--as they travel through a world peopled with evil characters and various cruelties--the limits of Pangloss's philosophy. Voltaire's great comic masterpiece is a satire of the doctrine of optimism, which Voltaire sees as a blind acceptance of human misery.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Fair. Size: 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall; Type: Ex-Library Cover worn at edges and corners, ex-library insignia. Pages clean, aged, some writing and underlining. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harlan Davidson
Date Published: 1985-11
ISBN-13:9780882951003ISBN:0882951009
Description: Good. Carefully read, tight copy. A few passages highlighted or underlined. Owner signed fly page. All items bubblewrapped. Ships daily with free tracking included. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Date Published: 1950
ISBN-13:9780140440041ISBN:0140440046
Description: Acceptable. Re-bound to hardcover Overall below average used book. May have highlighting, underlining, notes, price sticker on cover, or be an ex-library book. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Date Published: 1950
ISBN-13:9780140440041ISBN:0140440046
Description: Acceptable. Overall below average used book. May have highlighting, underlining, notes, price sticker on cover, or be an ex-library book. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date Published: 1950
ISBN-13:9780140440041ISBN:0140440046
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Near very good, binding tight except near front cover, a little edge wear, clean pages a little age-toned. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 144 p. Penguin Classics. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date Published: 1950
ISBN-13:9780140440041ISBN:0140440046
Description: Fair. No dust jacket as issued. Spine creased some, a litle edge wear, some underlines, page age-toned a little. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 144 p. Penguin Classics. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Appleton-Century-Crofts Inc
Date Published: 1946
Description: Good. ---115 pgs. Interior-Nice overall condition. The soft cover has light signs of aging. -Publish Place: New York-Size: 16mo-over 5¾"-6¾" tall. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Harlan Davidson
Date Published: 1946
ISBN-13:9780882951003ISBN:0882951009
Description: Fair. No dust jacket as issued. good reading copy. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 117 p. Crofts Classics. Audience: General/trade. read more
"This light-hearted, quirky little book seems very modern: if you take out the references to the Inquisition and the slave ships and the kings, its language and text would not be out of place on a bookshelf full of current titles. Voltaire's ostensible goal was to skewer, through satire, those who believe that the world we live in is "the best of all possible worlds." In fact, the book is more a skewering of pseudo-intellectuals of all types, a skewering of those who use words and grand philosophies to justify the fact that they're acting like idiots.
Also, this book is pretty funny. One imagines Voltaire laughing out loud as he penned some of its phrases.
Old as this book is, I can see the continuation of its thread in more modern works. John Barth's The Sot-Weed Factor is a clear homage to it. And the idea of the optimistic fool whose viewpoint allows us a clear vision of the absurdity or pathos of our modern world has certainly been seen again and again, from Kosinski's Being There to "Forrest Gump."
What was most interesting to me about this book, though, was my sense that as I was reading it I was witnessing the birth of the modern novel. I can't recall my literary history well enough to remember where exactly this book falls in the grand scheme of things, but the obvious disconnect between the author's subject matter (beheadings, slavery, torture, rape, mutilation, etc) and his light-hearted, satirical style seemed to me to be like the unveiling of a shiny new weapon in the history of literature.
Through sheer force of attitude, and through focusing the narrative through the lens of a single character's simplicity, Voltaire is able to dance, jump, and laugh around scenes that previously had only been able to elicit misery and despair. That Voltaire was actually living and seeing these things in real life makes this weapon of viewpoint all the more powerful and impressive."
"Zounds! This book is wildly entertaining and I giggled all the way through Candide's awful adventures. Who would have thought that murder, rape, slavery, sexual exploitation, natural disaster, pillaging, theft, and every other oppression imaginable could be so funny?
Here's some pretty good insight from the old woman with one buttock:
"I have been a hundred times upon the point of killing myself, but still I was fond of life. This ridiculous weakness is, perhaps, one of the dangerous principles implanted in our nature. For what can be more absurd than to persist in carrying a burden of which we wish to be eased? to detest, and yet to strive to preserve our existence? In a word, to caress the serpent that devours us, and hug him close to our bosoms till he has gnawed into our hearts?"
We can try to remain optimistic and rationalize that the horrors we witness are all a part of some plan but the choice to keep on living is a truly irrational one given all of the evidence available for us to consider. We go on living against our better judgment and in spite of all of our misery. It is what we were born to do.
"'You lack faith,' said Candide.
'It is because,' said Martin, 'I have seen the world.'""
"I don't know quite how it happened, but this book has come up again and again over the past month. Though I read it in college and enjoyed it then, I had forgotten exactly what made Candide so brilliant.
It's not the characters. Though, to be fair, the characters are remarkable. A hopelessly naive protagonist you feel tremendous sympathy for along with a remarkable cast of characters from nobles to ne'er do wells, priests to prostitutes, philosophers, fanatics and fiends connect you with Voltaire's world as easily as if they were standing around you.
It's not the plot's absurdity. Though, to be honest, the silliness going from nobility to serfdom, from penury to largesse, from power and misery to anonymity and contentment, is so unconventional and unlike 90% of all the other novels in the world that each and every reader becomes enraptured by the unfolding events that though it's all absurd, it's also extremely real.
It's Voltaire himself. The more you read the more you realize that he's peeking out from behind the pillars in the scenery, winking at you or whispering in your ear. Telling you what he really means and who he's really talking about. A long string of knowing jokes, and sly smiles creep off the page giving the reader an extra bit of insight into the novel, its historical context and the author himself.
The characters, the absurdity, and the author himself. Three reasons to read it again and again. Three explanations as to why it keeps coming up year after year."
"Before there was the opera by Leonard Bernstein there was the original, Candide: or, Optimism by Voltaire (nee Francois-Marie Arouet). The important thing to note about the title is the subtitle, optimism, for in all of literature there is hardly another work that argues more strongly for an optimistic approach to life. While Voltaire takes a cynical view of humanity that even denizens of the twenty-first century can appreciate, his cynicism does not lead him, or rather does not lead his character Doctor Pangloss, to reject an optimism that is best know by the phrase; this is "the best of all possible worlds". Yet, it is late in the book that we realize that Voltaire takes a view that man's life is made worth living by the exercise of hope, good nature, and industry. Indeed, the book ends with Candide saying to Doctor Pangloss, "we must cultivate our garden". And our garden, even for the skeptic Voltaire, is the one we inherited from Adam after his unceremonious exit from Eden. Voltaire's Candide is a delight for the reader almost two hundred fifty years after its first appearance from the fiery pen of one of the greatest thinkers of the Age of Enlightenment."
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