Candide
Ratings301
Average rating3.8
I love a bit of satire. Many parts of this book felt like a Monty Python skit or a Mel Brooks film. I’ve never been able to get behind the whole “everything is as it should be” way of thinking, and Voltaire does a really great job of skewering that philosophy in this very short read. The “tend your own garden” line at the end really stuck with me. I think it’s very important advice, especially in this time of social media oversaturation.
I'm not sure what I was expecting from Candide, but something about the way Maggie Nelson dropped Voltaire's famous quote about killing an admiral to encourage the others into Bluets made me feel like I was missing out having not read something of his.
Candide comprises a series of unfortunate events constructed to test (or ridicule) the philosophical premise that we live in “the best of all possible worlds.” If Voltaire had called the novel Fuck You, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz—Philosophical Optimism is Trash and So Are You I would have been better prepared.
It was at its best for me when contemplating happiness (and, briefly, suicide). I imagine the maxim ‘money can't buy happiness' may already have been tired in the 17th century, but either way it's well-expressed here.
I should like to know which is worse: to be ravished a hundred times by pirates, and have a buttock cut off, and run the gauntlet of the Bulgarians, and be flogged and hanged in an auto-da-fe, and be dissected, and have to row in a galley—in short, to undergo all the miseries we have each of us suffered—or simply to sit here and do nothing?
I suspect there's something to be said about a book that hasn't lost any of its relevance for over 250 years. It's been probably 15-ish years since I first read Candide, and it's been my yardstick for every satirical novel I've read since. It has a time and a place, but it transcends both somehow, and you don't need to know the history around it to know the ideas it viciously assaults–though knowing the history makes it that much more fun.
9/10
To give a brief introduction, Leibniz was an Enlightenment-era philosopher whose mantra could be simplified to ‘This is the best of all possible worlds.' Now, anyone who has stepped outside the bounds of their homes knows that this is not the case. Another philosopher of the same era, Voltaire, seemed to be infuriated with it – Candide was written to attack Leibnizian optimism and ridiculed government, military, religion, money, and the concept of honour itself.
When things seem to be getting better, Candide jumps to an entirely new plotline which makes you lose hope. That, to me, is Voltaire's genius. He leaves no holds barred in his unrelenting attack on optimism, so much so that each person takes for granted the horrors of our existence, even when confronted with it first-hand. Cunégonde's caretaker narrates the act of her buttocks being eaten by slavers for survival with an astounding lack of interest in the matter. Candide, the eponymous character, undergoes almost every calamity possible – ranging from being thrown out from his residence to nearly being hanged and even narrowly escaping from cannibals. There are dozens of such tales scattered across the text, and at some point, I just started laughing at Voltaire's ‘show, don't tell' philosophy – this novella might be the best example of the phrase I've ever seen.
Although abrupt, the ending felt perfect – primarily because of what it took for Candide to realise that we cannot always view the world through rose-tinted glasses – it helps to have a sense of realism, however tiny. Philosophy apart, Candide is a beautiful read, and it deserves its place in the Western canon.
Some of the comedy is a bit... gruesome to my taste, but it's still very funny. And sharp, witty, satirical, wise... I can imagine Sir Terry being somewhat influenced by good Voltaire and Jonathan Swift...
Reads more like a collection of short stories than a novel. A really enjoyable classic, written in an engaging manner. I also poses some interesting questions, and has a fairly satisfactory lesson at the end.
At its core, “Candide” is about the nature of humanity, from tribalism to the root of evil to the belief and function of a higher power. “Candide” is also a road trip story akin to “The Odyssey,” “Canterbury Tales,” and “Gulliver's Travels.”
Voltaire's use of irony and parody are extremely effective; seemingly endless cycles of violence and brutality lead to short-term wins for the victors and rough treatment for the losers. Yet, Candide is able to realize that he should he should focus on “cultivating his garden,” or focusing on what he does have, which is sort of a “no place like home” epiphany.
Discussion Questions from my Great Books meeting 07/27/19:
1. How does Voltaire satirize the philosophy of optimism (popularized by Alexander Pope), in which “all is for the best” in the first chapter?
2. In Chapter II, Candide is forcibly conscripted into the Bulgarian army and participates in the Seven Years War. Later, in Chapters XI through XII, we learn the story of Cunegonde's servant, the old woman. What is Voltaire's view of war?
3. The philosophy that mankind has both reason and free will is also lampooned in “Candide.” Can you think of examples in which the author targets free will and supports that the opposite is the way of the world?
4. Throughout Chapters IV through VI, Candide experiences one disaster after another from shipwreck to earthquake to religious persecution, but is elated at being reunited with his teacher, Pangloss. How does Candide view the Catholic Church and the practices like auto-da-fe? Does the author support the theory of Divine Providence, in which a loving and caring God watches over humanity?
5. In Chapters VII through X, Candide is reunited with his first love, Cunegonde. He learns that she was not fatally disemboweled and how she came to be the chattel of both a Grand Inquisitor and a wealthy Jewish banker. At this point, do both Candide and Cunegonde still subscribe to the optimistic philosophy Pangloss taught them?
6. What is the significance of the three men that Candide, an essentially happy-go-lucky and gentle person, kills?
7. There are several utopias depicted in “Candide.” Is Candide satisfied with the various utopias at the beginning in Westphalia and later in Eldorado? Which utopia do you think is the author's true idea of paradise? Where do we find the most “civilized” people in Candide's travels?
8. Throughout the story, amazing coincidences occur; those thought to be dead are alive – those thought never to be seen again appear halfway around the world. What is the purpose of these coincidences?
9. What does Candide mean by the decision to cultivate his garden?
El anti-alquimista.
Dejaros de basuras new-age y leer este libro, mas aventura, mas diversion y mejor mensaje.
“Pekerjaan menjauhkan kita dari tiga keburukan: rasa bosan, dosa, dan kemiskinan.”
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.
A satirical masterpiece...with more resurrections than a Marvel movie. Voltaire proves that Germans too have a sense of humor.
U0n de mes bons souvenirs de lectures obligatoires au lycée, avant même que Voltaire devienne pour moi un des ces penseurs qui m'inspirent.
