Candide by Voltaire

This is a great classic. "Candide" treats important philosophical questions in unusual way. The book is brilliant and often laught-out-loud hilarious.

Voltaire's book, originally published in 1759, is a classic of world literature. At face value, it is an allegorical attack in the belief on progress of its age, but I think it is much more than that. With a plot similar to that of a picaresque novel, it tells the story of Candide, a naïve young man taught by Dr. Plangloss ("all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds") on Leibnizian optimism. Several misfortunes forces him to go on a journey throughout the world (among the lands he travels, very breezily, are his native Germany, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, South America, France, England, Venice and the Ottoman Empire). Through the book, the main purpose of his life is to meet his beloved Cunegonde, a friend of his childhood who seems to have been through as much misfortunes as him. The novel attacks not only the religious intolerance of the day, but European colonialism, and institutions then considered natural by most people, like slavery (when he meets an African slave in the Dutch colony in Surinam, the black man wonders why if the Dutch preachers tell him that all men are brothers, some peoples rule over others). In a Rousseau-like touch, the place most happy to him seems to be a place in South America, where the natives have found a shelter from the European conquistadors, and where gold is considered valueless mud. And despite being almost 250 years old, the book is very accessible (at least in the translation I have read).

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.

To call this book a satire and suggest that it is funny, or well done, or relevant to recent times, may be true but that fails to point out what is obvious. Voltaire was a French Enlightment writer. He used wit to make his points. He made fun of the teachings of the Church but he was pushing for religious freedom. He had strong opinions and the book was a tool to presenting his thoughts. The book is considered to be one of the most significant works of Western Canon due to its portrayal of the human condition.

The story is intended to satirize the idea of optimism. The approach was developed in the events of a trip. The events of the trip allow him to interchange the tragedy and the comedy within the various situations that occurred. This is a unique approach but it allowed him to develop a look at good and evil as well as the role of God and Government in men's lives. The satirical approach allowed him cover to focus his criticism.
A simple story. Young man leaves his home but really he has to leave having been caught kissing the wrong person. Sill optimistic he joins the army. He is flogged. Later almost burned alive. He sets out to see the world but continues to believe, as he was taught early in his life, that he is indeed living in the "best of all possible worlds". It seems as though nothing goes well. One tragedy after another. Funny but sad. Then after what seems to be an endless ordeal he returns and settles for life in a garden. Even so, still optimistic perhaps, he says that "we must cultivate our garden".

His book and his story challenge the idea that "all is for the best" in a world where it is often assumed that things "work out for the best".

Comedy or tragedy? Which makes for better literature? How about both? In fact, many of the greatest works of literature are both comedies and tragedies. Candide is probably the greatest example of such a work from a French author. Penned under a pseudonym by the great thinker, Voltaire, this work is superficially an adventure novel about the title character traveling the known world to find his love, while accompanied by Pangloss. In reality, the book is a parody of human society, culture, philosophy, and mentality. The result is a short, witty and insightful examination of the human condition. The textual level is appropriate for anyone at the high school level, but is great reading for anyone at any reading level.

All in all, one of the best works in young adult literature.