Today's Featured Book:
Candide
by Voltaire
Genre: Historical Fiction
Published: 1759
Page Count: 129 pages
Summary:
Candide is a French satire written by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment, first published in 1759. The novella has been widely translated, with English versions titled Candide: or, All for the Best (1759); Candide: or, The Optimist (1762); and Candide: Optimism (1947).
It begins with a young man, Candide, who is living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism by his mentor, Professor Pangloss. The work describes the abrupt cessation of this lifestyle, followed by Candide's slow and painful disillusionment as he witnesses and experiences great hardships in the world.
Voltaire concludes Candide with, if not rejecting Leibnizian optimism outright, advocating a deeply practical precept, "we must cultivate our garden", in lieu of the Leibnizian mantra of Pangloss, "all is for the best" in the "best of all possible worlds".
In a castle of Westphalia, belonging to the Baron of Thunder-ten-Tronckh, lived a youth, whom nature had endowed with the most gentle manners. His countenance was a true picture of his soul. He combined a true judgment with simplicity of spirit, which was the reason, I apprehend, of his being called Candide.
Voltaire. Candide, p. 1. Kindle Edition.
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They sat until four o'clock in the morning. Candide, in listening to all their adventures, was reminded of what the old woman had said to him in their voyage to Buenos Ayres, and of her wager that there was not a person on board the ship but had met with very great misfortunes. He dreamed of Pangloss at every adventure told to him. "This Pangloss," said he, "would be puzzled to demonstrate his system. I wish that he were here. Certainly, if all things are good, it is in El Dorado and not in the rest of the world."
Voltaire. Candide, 56%. Kindle Edition.
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Candide is a brilliant masterpiece, a scathingly brutal satire of overly optimistic philosophies of life.
Candide lives a secluded life with a wealthy family in a castle, and his life is so affluent that Candide has his own philosophy teacher, Pangloss.
All is well, and Pangloss’ philosophies remain intact until Candide falls in love with the family’s daughter and he is expelled into real life.
Real life brings an endless series of horrible events for Candide and all the people he meets, horrible events that are so inexplicably horrible that they make the life of Job appear to be quite Edenic.
Candide at last makes his way back to his homeland and, after all the horrible experiences, he is able to revise his philosophy of life to the practical: Cultivate your garden, he extols, cautiously.
Brilliant. Masterpiece. A must read.
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I feel like we are often too exclusionary, that we who read one sort of book scorn others who read other sorts of books. We often end up in jobs where we rate and ridicule the reading of others to the point that people hate books and hate reading. I hate that this happens.
