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Candide (Thrift Editions)
by Voltaire
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This book does not stick so well in my memory in either a negative or positive way, but I think this comes from the book being a mixture of two things which I could not feel more differently about: allegory and satire.
The first I find to be as silly and pointless as Aesop or Passion Plays, and is part of the reason that The Wizard of Oz has always felt odd and stilted to me. Characters in an allegory become pointless as far as observations of humanity are concerned, for they become oversimpl...more
The first I find to be as silly and pointless as Aesop or Passion Plays, and is part of the reason that The Wizard of Oz has always felt odd and stilted to me. Characters in an allegory become pointless as far as observations of humanity are concerned, for they become oversimpl...more
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Read in February, 2008
This was the best book for me to read at this moment in time! Right now, things have gone wrong with us financially, physically, emotionally and in just about every way. The last time this happened, I picked up Why Bad Things Happen To Good People and it felt "right". This time around, the satire and black humor was just right for me!
One thing that is really cool is that Candide's story is timeless, even though it was written in the 18th century! At some point, most peop...more
One thing that is really cool is that Candide's story is timeless, even though it was written in the 18th century! At some point, most peop...more
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Read in April, 2008
After having listened to a copy of the Operetta based on this book by Leonard Bernstein, I was compelled to read the original story. Having studied French literature, I would have liked to read the novel in its original French, but didn't have a copy accessible. However, I got the impression that this particular translation was a very appropriate one. It seemed to capture a straight-forward and witty tone, adhering to frequent use of a germanic/anglo-saxon style of lexicon - perhaps to encourage...more
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Read in June, 2008
About 120 pages...halfway between a short story and a novel
Lack of detail and character development characteristic of short story, yet plot twists and development characteristic of novel. Moves very quickly.
Somewhat enjoyable to read for the story but much more interesting in historical context and for philosophical consideration.
Humorous in its absurdities and at times hilarious. Some of my favorites:
"Let's mount the horses immediately, though I have only one buttock to s...more
Lack of detail and character development characteristic of short story, yet plot twists and development characteristic of novel. Moves very quickly.
Somewhat enjoyable to read for the story but much more interesting in historical context and for philosophical consideration.
Humorous in its absurdities and at times hilarious. Some of my favorites:
"Let's mount the horses immediately, though I have only one buttock to s...more
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Political satire doesn't age well, but occasionally a diatribe contains enough art and universal mirth to survive long after its timeliness has passed. Candide is such a book. Penned by that Renaissance man of the Enlightenment, Voltaire, Candide is steeped in the political and philosophical controversies of the 1750s. But for the general reader, the novel's driving principle is clear enough: the idea (endemic in Voltaire's day) that we live in the best of all possible worlds, and apparent folly...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommended to n* by:
Ms. Pickart?? I have no recollection. Probably Ms. Pickart.recommends it for: interested in French history? interested in the rise and fall of gloom and fortune?
Update--
Just finished reading this one. Oh, snap, son it was just as satirific as I remembered! I found Candide's character far more sympathetic than I did in high school, which may speak to my embracing a small amount of sincerity in the intervening years. Cynicism was the word of the age back then, and imagining a character that was so easily happy was impossible. Turns out, he's not happy at all, which makes him beautiful. Another reason to go back and read the things you always loved in ...more
Just finished reading this one. Oh, snap, son it was just as satirific as I remembered! I found Candide's character far more sympathetic than I did in high school, which may speak to my embracing a small amount of sincerity in the intervening years. Cynicism was the word of the age back then, and imagining a character that was so easily happy was impossible. Turns out, he's not happy at all, which makes him beautiful. Another reason to go back and read the things you always loved in ...more
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Read in October, 2004
recommended to Tawny by:
Dr. Carl Sederholmrecommends it for: Jaymi, Abby
Favorite lines:
1. "Pangloss sometimes used to say to Candide: —All events are linked together in the best of possible worlds; for, after all, if you had not been driven from a fine castle by being kicked in the backside for love of Miss Cunégonde, if you hadn’t been sent before the Inquisition, if you hadn’t traveled across America on foot, if you hadn’t given a good sword thrust to the baron, if you hadn’t lost all your sheep from the good land of Eldorado, you wouldn’t be s...more
1. "Pangloss sometimes used to say to Candide: —All events are linked together in the best of possible worlds; for, after all, if you had not been driven from a fine castle by being kicked in the backside for love of Miss Cunégonde, if you hadn’t been sent before the Inquisition, if you hadn’t traveled across America on foot, if you hadn’t given a good sword thrust to the baron, if you hadn’t lost all your sheep from the good land of Eldorado, you wouldn’t be s...more
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Read in January, 2005
recommended to Ben by:
English 3 AP Teacher
French satire. Voltaire. Candide.
This was an incredibly amusing satiric comedy of a man named Candide. Interested yet? You should be. This follows as a histeric adventure as Candide pursues the love of his life, the beautiful Cunegonde. Candide has an eternal optimism that persists through many ridiculous hardhsips: "In this best of all possible worlds, everything is for the best." If you enjoy a good satire. Read it.
"It is demonstrable," said he, "that t...more
This was an incredibly amusing satiric comedy of a man named Candide. Interested yet? You should be. This follows as a histeric adventure as Candide pursues the love of his life, the beautiful Cunegonde. Candide has an eternal optimism that persists through many ridiculous hardhsips: "In this best of all possible worlds, everything is for the best." If you enjoy a good satire. Read it.
"It is demonstrable," said he, "that t...more
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Read in October, 2007
My fourth time reading it?
Teaching it this week (for the 3rd time).
For plot summaries, see reviews below.
Does Candide falter? Yes: Voltaire turns his attention to the literary scene in Paris for 5-7 pages (which means: 5-7% of the book). We can laugh at Voltaire inserting himself and his fellow writers into the book, but given the grand scope of the rest of the narrative, the insertion looks, and is, self-indulgent. Probably the clearest sign of the failure of those scenes is ...more
Teaching it this week (for the 3rd time).
For plot summaries, see reviews below.
Does Candide falter? Yes: Voltaire turns his attention to the literary scene in Paris for 5-7 pages (which means: 5-7% of the book). We can laugh at Voltaire inserting himself and his fellow writers into the book, but given the grand scope of the rest of the narrative, the insertion looks, and is, self-indulgent. Probably the clearest sign of the failure of those scenes is ...more
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Read in March, 2008
I didn't expect this book to be so funny! What a nice surprise. The story is a lampoon of the phony, foolish "optimism" that says, "This must be the best of all possible worlds, because this is the way the world is." Even though the book was written over 200 years ago, it is still timely. It applies today to the ridiculous people who say that "thinking positive" will make everything work out.
Voltaire's conclusion, after all of Candide's experiences, is that we...more
Voltaire's conclusion, after all of Candide's experiences, is that we...more
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recommends it for:
philosophical people
I liked the book, though I got tired of Candide's optimism. I mean, I should have expected it considering Candide means optimism, butttt it was just hard imagining such an ideological person. Even after all of these horrible things happen to him, he still feels that "what's for the best has happened." The entire novel is pretty much him trying to find the love of his life so he can marry her and in the end Voltaire comments basically, 'so now that Candide can marry Miss Cunegonde, h...more
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Read in February, 2004
recommends it for:
Literary readers, classics readers, philosophical readers
A rapid examination and mockery of various schools of theology and philosophy that was blisteringly fast for its time, and quite funny for any time. The young and simpleminded Candide is booted from his castle and forced to travel, going through a bizarre series of hardships and fortunes that strain disbelief until disbelief completely snaps. Paradise is discovered without a single lesson learned, people presumed dead return - things that would be the hallmarks of overindulgent literary fiction ...more
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I really enjoy this printing. The 'comic of a series' attitude of the artwork is easily delighted in.
from the back of the book,
"With CANDIDE, Voltaire bumptiously skewered the fashionable miniterpretation of the doctrine of philosphical optimism, unerringly offending kings, scientists, fanaticals, publishers, journalists, and even priests; composed in a mere three days, CANDIDE's capacity to amuse, disgust, and surprise endures today, roughly ninety thousand days later. Theo Cuffe'...more
from the back of the book,
"With CANDIDE, Voltaire bumptiously skewered the fashionable miniterpretation of the doctrine of philosphical optimism, unerringly offending kings, scientists, fanaticals, publishers, journalists, and even priests; composed in a mere three days, CANDIDE's capacity to amuse, disgust, and surprise endures today, roughly ninety thousand days later. Theo Cuffe'...more
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Read in November, 2007
I'd like to see this book as a movie because of the outlandishly unfortunate events the main character encounters: the double death of his love, the loss of one of his buttocks, accidentally killing monkeys on 2 womens' backs that turned out to be their lovers, finding a land in which common street rocks were precious jewels and being allowed to carry as much as they wanted on the backs of 200 red sheep (they apparently had red mange) who subsequently mostly sink into bogs with their treasure, e...more
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I love Candide. A great book, though I did not read this edition. The edition I read is in a box somewhere and I was unable to find it on goodreads. An annoying issue with the addition I read was that it included the apocryphal Part II without any warning or introduction. It just presented it as if all editions presented it. I got to the garden, expected it to end and found another 100 pages or so. I do like how the second part begins though. "We soon become tired of everything in life; ric...more
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I first read this book in high school French class, en francais, and the most memorable line was "il faut cultiver le jardin." (One must cultivate (his) garden.) I remember writing to my friend in Paris about it and she mentioned that line because she scored well on her exam that concerned this book (18/20- I even remember her grade).
I later found this copy with cover illustrated by Chris Ware (famous for graphic art and exhibited at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, MoCA, last...more
I later found this copy with cover illustrated by Chris Ware (famous for graphic art and exhibited at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, MoCA, last...more
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Read in July, 2008
Voltaire was a shining intellect during the Enlightenment, prodigious writer, influential and well respected and well hated he made, as many have already said, one major mistake: he wrote Candide.
No, there is nothing wrong with the book, far from it, it is well written, well developed, enjoyable, refrains from being too preachy while getting Voltaire's point across. but because of all that and more, it eclipses his many, many other works. We read it because it is Candide, and it is what we t...more
No, there is nothing wrong with the book, far from it, it is well written, well developed, enjoyable, refrains from being too preachy while getting Voltaire's point across. but because of all that and more, it eclipses his many, many other works. We read it because it is Candide, and it is what we t...more
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This is my umteenth time to re-read and re-teach Candide. It is great fun to teach--I love discussing satire as a mechanism with students. Reading Candide only makes me wish that Monty Python were still making films, and wonder why they never made a film version of this. Voltaire is a one man Monty Python for the Age of Reason--mocking all blends of philosophy, religion, church and government institutions. And like Monty Python, the world appears absurd, senseless--Voltaire seems to pledge his a...more
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Read in May, 2008
I finally got around to reading Candide. I enjoyed it, but it was not what I expected. Part of the initial shock was that I forgot it was a satire, and then it took me a while to figure out the context of the book and what it was aimed at. Overall, it is interesting to read a philosophical satire by someone that is most often remembered as a philosopher. A quick warning: If the copy you pick up has two "parts" be warned that the second part is not by Voltaire and is a response/continua...more
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Read in April, 2007
Candide. It took me some time to read this book, even though it is very thin.
Actually, since it was written in the 18th century, I expected some quaint old language and obscure grammer (like I found in Defo's 'Moll Flanders'), but the book was easy and readable. It contains a lot of dark humour, and a lot of darkness in any way. Murders, rape, disease, body mutilation, it is all there, and all this the main character goes through, while losing all his loved ones and all dignity and all throu...more
Actually, since it was written in the 18th century, I expected some quaint old language and obscure grammer (like I found in Defo's 'Moll Flanders'), but the book was easy and readable. It contains a lot of dark humour, and a lot of darkness in any way. Murders, rape, disease, body mutilation, it is all there, and all this the main character goes through, while losing all his loved ones and all dignity and all throu...more
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book data (includes all editions)
avg rating (all editions): 3.87 (6561 ratings) avg rating (this edition): 3.85 (3925 ratings) number of reviews: 553popular shelves
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quote
"'Do you believe,' said Candide, 'that men have always massacred each other as they do to-day, that they have always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates, brigands, idots, thieves, scoundrels, gluttons, drunkards, misers, envious, ambitious, bloody-minded, calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, hypocrites, and fools?'
'Do you believe,' said Martin, 'that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they have found them?' "
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