Candide
by Voltaire · Candide, ou l'Optimisme
Assigned by 3 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1759
- Form
- Satire
- Language
- French
- Length
- Short · 150 ppunder 120 pages
- Difficulty
- Approachable1 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendCandide, or Optimism, translated by Theo CuffePenguin Classics, 2006A lively modern translation with Michael Wood's introduction and full notes.
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Candide, a naive young man raised in a Westphalian castle on his tutor Pangloss's doctrine that this is the best of all possible worlds, is kicked out for kissing the baron's daughter Cunégonde. He is press-ganged, flogged, shipwrecked, caught in the Lisbon earthquake, and hunted by the Inquisition, then crosses to South America, visits Eldorado, and returns through Paris and Venice to Constantinople. Everyone he loves is raped, hanged, enslaved or disfigured and turns up again alive. He ends on a small farm, having concluded that we must cultivate our garden.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns Candide are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
