Candide: Or, Optimism (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) Paperback – Deckle Edge, October 25, 2005

Bottom Line first: There is something presumptuous about attempting a critical review of something as classic and acclaimed as Voltaire‘s Candide. The official verdict is that this is great literature. I shall write naught to gainsay my betters. That said it can be hard for the modern reader to do better than to accept that the several hundred years of approval may not temper the problems of reading it several hundred years later. Recommendation: It may be that the best way to grasp what is a broad and darkly comic satire is the Operetta of the same name music by Lenard Bernstein and libretto by several besides Voltaire, including Lillian Hellman.  Candide (1956 Original Broadway Cast) Ok the Blah Blah Blah Part: A German natural philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, 1646 – 1716 argued that as God is a loving God and the maker of all things, the reality we live in the reality of choice by a loving God and therefore we live in the best of all possible worlds. The reader is advised to remember this, The Formula. The novella is a test of this conclusion. It is perhaps something of a spoiler to tell you that Voltaire is not impressed by the arguments of this philosophical polymath.Our story opens in a palace in Westphalia, the 18th century cultural equivalent of the poorer and less desirable quarters of an unfashionable city. Here living in relative splendor of a backwater palace we find all of our major characters. Our leading male for whom the story is titled, Candide is the illegitimate son of a relative being raised among his betters including the love of his life Cunegunda. Plus various secondary characters not necessary for this discussion.Very quickly the misadventures begin. Candide is run from his idyllic life and never again do we see the best and the balance shall be the possible. Cunegunda survives the destruction of her home and family and begins her adventures, more about anon.Without listing the various evils and hurts our hero suffers; a few points. Everything he sees and suffers that argue against the 18th century being the best of all possible are things that actually happened. Evil is afoot in many forms often lead by seniors within the Catholic Church. Not to limit this to a shamming of the Church there is evil petty and grand from treacherous friends and servants to local politicals and businessmen. It is argued that the evil is a necessary thing to maintain a principal of proportionality but this case is made by the quickly dismissible Panglos (Pan=all Glos=talk) the broadly shamed stand-in for Leibniz.There will be for Candide one happy interval in a land much like the Utopia dreamed up by friend to Voltaire, Thomas More. Later Candide will fall in with and benefit from friendship with cynical and more practical Martin, Martin Luther perhaps.It is easy to fixate on the story of Candide and forget about Cunegunda. She is also subject to all of the vagaries of her sex. Instead of being sold off, I mean married off to some neighboring lordling in a commercial marriage, she is pushed in to a number of variations in the the other kinds of commerce based on young female flesh. At her side is a loyal old woman with but one buttock. Between the two we are regaled with the funny, only not so funny variations of evils set aside for 18th Century womankind.So 75 pages of violence , treachery, petty and great wrongdoings and we are supposed to laugh? Ok maybe grim grins?I suggest that Voltaire pretty much dismisses our magic ‘best of all possible…’ formula very quickly. The rest is a plea for tolerance and a condemnation of extremism. Especially were the most doctrinaire are also unlikely to be practicing much else that is admirable. Also the conclusion is not so much a refutation of The Formula, as it is a case for a simpler and bucolic life.Final note on my edition. The quality of the translation is not something I can address. I can say that I liked the presence of so many extra pages of scholarly material.

This is an insanely rich story plot that includes many characters and adventures, in multiple countries across 3 continents, including one secret road to a hidden fabled city. It involves love, murder, chase scenes, perilous sea journeys and even a canibalistic tribe, and exposes the contrast between comfort and discomfort, riches and bankruptcy, freedom and slavery, beauty and ugliness, about trust from a stranger and betrayal by the most unexpected, and colourful friendships and enemies made along the journey.It is a story set in a chaotic world filled with civil and religious wars, blatant prejudice, racism, slavery, despotic rulers, plague, sexual diseases, cruel capital punishment of innocent victims, just like it was in 1759 when the book was written. And the best part is? It is less than 180 pages, although I swear it feels much longer due to the magnanimity of the story. It’s astonishing how Voltaire could possibly wrote all of this in just 3 days.With the attempt of not spoiling too much of the narrative, let me just say that the plot begins with a calm and friendly environment just like the situation with the Starks at the first episode of the Game of Thrones. The plot then progressed into a wild mix of Les Miserables + Around the World in 80 Days, with one distinctive philosophical question that has since entered the English language dictionary: Panglossian.Pangloss was a mentor for Candide, and he taught Candide that he lived in “the best of all possible worlds,” and that “since everything is made for an end, everything is necessary for the best end.” But then the tremendously rich life journey that Candide eventually had, prove otherwise. That people are cruel and life is not fair, that the world was “very mad and very abominable”, according to an anti-Panglossian character named Martin (an eternally pessimistic person). And slowly but sure Candide begins to question Pangloss’ naive optimistic view on life, where he eventually said “it is the madness of maintaining that everything is right when it is wrong.”But is it really naive? Over the development of the story we witness the philosophical interpretation about the nature of suffering, where Pangloss himself argued that all unfortunate events eventually led to somewhere more desirable and thus the suffering is a crucial stepping stone towards something more optimistic, a strength that can only be obtained through overcoming obstacles. Moreover, as the book makes it painfully obvious, it was not blind optimism but his naive judgements towards people’s intentions that led Candide into troubles. And so, being optimistic is one thing but risk management is another one, and we cannot blame optimism for the sorrow that comes from our poor risk management.This, obviously, is not a definitive interpretation and this “Panglossian Dilemma” is what makes this book one of the most influential contributors to the Age of Enlightenment in France. It forces us to think and it is still open for a debate even today some 200+ years later.And the conclusion that I get from what Voltaire is trying to say in this book is that we cannot be happy - even if we’re literally living in a paradise with all the riches - if we cannot spend it with the ones we love. All the luxuries and the beauty that we own will mean nothing if we can’t appreciate it, in fact it could become a burden of misery to us (just like the senator in Venice). And perhaps more importantly, in real life there is no distinctive black and white, as even a kind good natured person can kill few people under precarious circumstances, or we can still choose to be kind despite the awful things that happened to us (like the old lady).Indeed, people are incapable of fully understanding the evil in this world and life can be cruel, but at the same time we also tend to forget that suffering is optional and temporary. So, in the end our happiness or misery really depends on our outlook in life: we can still able to be an eternal optimist even under the worst possible circumstances, or we can be miserable even when surrounded by all the goodness life has to offer. And all of these deep philosophical thoughts are illustrated in the most imaginative way possible by Voltaire. Incredible, incredible book.

This English translation is basically garbage. It is a joke at best. At least parts of it seem to be translated by a machine. However, the original copyright date is 1918, meaning perhaps an assembly line approach was more fashionable and feasible at the time. Regardless, there is no credited translator that I could find, likely because no single person would want to take credit for this monstrous abomination of a classic text.The (lack of) quality of this translation provide yet one more counterexample of Pangloss' famed "best of all possible worlds" optimism, which in this version hilariously is touted instead as "this exceptional of all feasible worlds."From the first two pages of the translation, this sentence(?) makes an appearance: "His first-rate corridor, turned into[Pg 2] hung with tapestry."This gem arises shortly after: "The Baron's son seemed to be in each recognize worth of his father. The Preceptor Pangloss[1] become the oracle of the family..."It continues on like that for two more pages, after reading which I could no longer bear waiting for the experience to be over. Hence, I jumped to the final conclusion of the book, which (spoiler alert) have the protagonist exclaiming "let us cultivate our lawn."I have no idea how this "translation" passed any editor's inspection, even in 1918. The errors are not related to dated phrases, but lack of basic English grammar.Avoid this edition and find a better one. Of course the original French is the proper way to read it, but failing that, find an edition translated by someone with a working understanding of both French and English. I will update this review when I find a good one.

Steer clear from this cheap scam of an attempt to sell this classic.Some examples of word/phrases that pop-up in here, when compared with another version:'united states of america' instead of 'country''e-book' instead of 'book''0.33' instead of 'third' eg/ 'the 0.33 man'Bought this to line it up to read, and my return window has closed from Amazon.The price we pay for no quality control.

Parece simples e trivial, mas está longe disso. Exige certo conhecimento histórico dos personagens e da realidade da época para completa apreciacao da obra.Após anos ouvindo o nome do autor, e anos lendo diversos livros sobre filosofia, história e análises dos anos que precederam os 1750s (e as consequências do Iluminismo), entendo um pouco melhor a profundidade dessa sátira crítica.Acho que sua obra é melhor entendida se acompanhada de uma boa análise de um acadêmico. O assunto é complexo e é super atual.

I actually really enjoyed this book. I had no idea it was a comedy until I actually received it and read the back cover (I had just impulsively bought multiple books from notable authors to read to and from Europe). Despite being obviously outdated, it was pretty funny. However, you have to really have a somewhat thorough grasp of the philosophies of people like Kant and others during that time period. There are a lot of references in there that will make any philosophy major chuckle a bit. It's a super entertaining and ridiculous story that's quite unfortunate. It's a short read though and I'm glad. Any longer would just be pushing it. If you want something lighthearted and are a philosophy major or familiar with the discipline you should definitely check this book out.

This is just another book with a usual story of a man falling for the wrong girl or falling for a girl that the society doesn't approve of. However, it is well written and keeps the user engaged till the end as there are many twists and turns to read on with.