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Voltaire’s Candide, or Optimism (Candide, ou l’Optimisme, 1759) is a sprawling adventure satire meant to skewer the naïve optimism of the day- specifically agains Rousseau. The novella’s eponymous hero, Candide, is a young, innocent nobleman taught by his tutor Pangloss that “all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.” After he is unceremoniously expelled from the Baron’s castle for an indiscreet romance, Candide embarks on a whirlwind tour of 18th-century calamity. He endures the brutality of war (famously, being conscripted into the Bulgarian army), survives earthquakes (notably the Lisbon disaster), slavers and shipwrecks, and witnesses hypocrisy and violence wherever he goes. Along the way, Voltaire mercilessly parodies every major institution and philosophy: Candide encounters absurdly rigid religions, fraudulent philosophers, exploitative governments and bungling intellectuals. Each misadventure further erodes his faith in Pangloss’s platitude, until by the end Candide concludes that the secret to survival is practical labor: “we must cultivate our garden,” rejecting hollow idealism. In its sweep of events – from Lisbon’s ruins after 1755 to the unjust execution of Admiral Byng – Candide exposes the cruelty and folly of the human world, all while maintaining a biting, ironic voice. The circumstances of Candide’s publication reflect its controversial nature. Finished in late 1758, it first appeared (anonymously and unlicensed) in early 1759 outside France – often cited as a clandestine edition in Amsterdam or London – because Voltaire could not risk a Paris release under such a caustic satire.
This modern Critical Reader’s Edition includes an illuminating afterword tracing Voltaire’s intellectual relationships with Enlightenment thinkers and philosophers (including Locke, Diderot, Rousseau and Newton), containing unique research into his influences and economic attachments, a comprehensive timeline of his life and works, a glossary of Enlightenment terminology, and a detailed index of all of Voltaire’s writings. This unique professional translation renders Voltaire’s sharp, satirical prose into modern language to preserve the original clarity and movement of the text. Combined with the scholarly amplifying material, this edition is a groundbreaking exploration of Voltaire’s classic works and his enduring artistic and philosophical influence, and influence on modern Protestant-Atheistic Theology.
