Candide - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Overview

Candide, ou l'Optimisme (icon; French: kɑ̃did) is a French satire

Satire

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

first published in 1759 by Voltaire

Voltaire

François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...

, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment

Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...

. The novella

Novella

A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...

has been widely translated, with English versions titled Candide: or, All for the Best (1759); Candide: or, The Optimist (1762); and Candide: or, Optimism (1947). It begins with a young man, Candide, who is living a sheltered life in an Edenic

Garden of Eden

The Garden of Eden is in the Bible's Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...

paradise

Paradise

Paradise is a place in which existence is positive, harmonious and timeless. It is conceptually a counter-image of the miseries of human civilization, and in paradise there is only peace, prosperity, and happiness. Paradise is a place of contentment, but it is not necessarily a land of luxury and...

and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism (or simply Optimism) by his mentor, Pangloss.

Unanswered Questions

Why does the king spare Candides life?

How is Candide similarities to Gulliver's Travels

Why did candide begin to doubt optimism?

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Discussions

I have to make an essay for my english class about "How is the novel a satire on optimism? Make sure to discuss the faulty use of cause and effect an...

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Quotations

Les malheurs particuliers font le bien général, de sorte que plus il y a de malheurs particuliers, et plus tout est bien.

Private misfortunes are public benefits; so that the more private misfortunes there are, the greater is the general good.

Si c’est ici le meilleur des mondes possibles, que sont donc les autres?

If this is the best of all possible worlds, what are the others?

Si nous ne trouvons pas des choses agréables, nous trouverons du moins des choses nouvelles.

If we do not meet with agreeable things, we shall at least meet with something new.

Qu’est-ce qu’optimisme? disait Cacambo. — Hélas! dit Candide, c’est la rage de soutenir que tout est bien quand on est mal.

"Optimism," said Cacambo, "what is that?""Alas!" replied Candide, "it is the obstinacy of maintaining that everything is best when it is worst."

Dans ce pays-ci il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres.

In this country it is found requisite, now and then, to put an admiral to death, in order to encourage the others to fight.

Les sots admirent tout dans un auteur estimé. Je ne lis que pour moi; je n'aime que ce qui est à mon usage.

Ignorant readers are apt to judge a writer by his reputation. For my part, I read only to please myself. I like nothing but what makes for my purpose.

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