Candide

Everyone should read Voltaire.

Not good for students. Voltaire himself is okay but not really saying anything that really makes me sit up

I was looking for the French version. It was not clear this book was in English.

So. One finally catches up with Candide, the 84-page novella dashed off by Voltaire in three days and recognised as one of the most influential books ever written. It is the story of a young man who is persuaded of the doctrine of optimism by his mentor Professor Pangloss: “All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds”. This is a strange dark fairy tale riddled with allegory and overburdened with an exaggerated, almost cartoonish brutality. Also cartoon-like is the resurrection of bumped-off characters, however welcome their return. (I’m looking at you, Pangloss.) Less welcome was the undercurrent of antisemitism I detected in certain parts of this story. (Et tu, Voltaire?) It is only really possible to understand Voltaire’s great work as a satire of its times thanks to the rather odd but undoubtedly helpful footnotes. (I am referring to the Amazon Classics edition with Philip Littell’s introduction - one of the most bizarre pieces of writing I have ever read. Or, to be more precise, skipped.) I close with my favourite quote: “Fools admire everything in an author of reputation. For my part, I read only to please myself. I like only that which serves my purpose.” Quite so. And now the sun has come out and I must cultivate my garden.