Rating: 
Summary: One for the ages
Review: I picked up this book because I was curious about the source matter for a piece I was playing with a symphony (the overture to Berstein's "Candide"). I seem to be the only person I know personally that wasn't forced/encouraged to read this book in a French/classical Lit. class.I'm not disappointed. I think that those who don't see the satire in this text perhaps don't pay too much attention to their surroundings. Voltaire is poking fun at things much larger than the Leibnizian philosophy that serves as the focal point for attack in this this novella; the central message (contained within the last few lines of the story) is that there are more pressing, immediate, and pragmatic concerns to life than philosophies, dogmas, and the like. Voltaire was the pragmatic's philosopher, the anti-philosopher in many senses. His rejection of blind followings, philosophical "proof," and "schools" of thought is clear within this sharp-witted text. It's a great read for anyone who's been stomped on for thinking "outside of the box." I would recommend that those readers with a more thorough background (and interest) in religious and philosophical literature and history look up Voltaire's magnum opus, the *Philosophical Dictionary.* Don't be fooled by its title; it's anything but dry, stale definitions. A great read with some light Mozart and good tea. =)
Rating:
Summary: a good book
Review: this book was pretty good. it was kind of weird but good. i thought that it wasnt a satire but my lit teacher said that it was so you have to interpret it as one. if you dont then it makes it look like any regular book that you would read.
Rating: 
Summary: The point
Review: I totally missed the point of the novel. Maybe I need a professor to explain the satire but I did not get it. I kept waiting for the story to tell me something about myself or about society - it never did. After reading some of your reviews, I am led to believe that I totally missed the boat. Did I really?
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Summary: Tis marvelous!!!
Review: Book is short, funny, insightful, and just stunning. Takes you away from the schlock produced by this society. God give rest to Pangloss!!!
Rating:
Summary: If only more classic literature was written this well...
Review: ... I would read a lot more classic literature than I do now. So what if this book's sole purpose was to present Voltaire's snide and sarcastic remarks about some archaic German philosophy which no longer exists? So what if the advice to cultivate one's own garden has no more to do with my Real Life right now than Leibniz or Christian Wolffe? The language is a towering pinnacle of aethetic delight (ironic, I know, since I read the book in an english translation.) It was a great pleasure to read. I got to impress my English teacher *and* be thoroughly entertained at the same time -- what a deal! Now, unfortunately, I'm afraid I shall have to plow through all those boring criticisms detailing "the intellectual climate of the period," which take up two thirds of the edition of Candide I'm reading. Oh well. It was certainly worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: SIMPLE YET PROFOUND
Review: Perhaps technically, not a literary masterpiece, but from a philosophical perspective, divine "food for thought" indeed.
Rating:
Summary: hilarious and insightful
Review: This book is one of the best I've ever read. Voltaire's satire remains just as witty and relevant today as the day he wrote it. He was an amazing man with an uncanny grasp of society's foibles. Candide's endeavors never fail to amuse, and the entire book is a fantastic success.
Rating: 
Summary: Insufferable-run away from this novel as fast as you can
Review: Granted my having read Candide in it'a original French in a highschool French Lit. class may have something to do with my dislike of this novel. However, we read other books in that class that I loved (Une Si Longe Lettre for one). I can only conlude that it is the book not the class that was so horrible. There are many things detestable about this novel so I will limit my critisicsm to only several aspects: the pot has no coherence, the character developement is not only unbelievable but also banal, the writing style ,although blessedly, terse is childish and unimaginative to say the least. And finally, a qotation I once read said something to this effect: the best novel are those that are novels not only of the hour but of all time. Candide has no relevance to my life or this era what so ever. One more word to those who wish to deride me as an illiterate teenage who can only process the sound bites of T.V., think again. I am an avid reader of all kind of literature including classic literature. And, as an reader who has devoured many books, I say don't even waste your time considering this novel; there are thousands of far better works! Oh, and I really pity you poor French literature students who will have to read Candide anyway.
Rating: 
Summary: Candid About Candide
Review: The style of exposition used in this book is reminiscent of The Misfortunes of Virtue by the Marquis de Sade. Voltaire presents a catalog of calamities meant to debunk the belief that our world is perfect, and that everything happens "for the best" according to some divine plan. While there is no doubt that Candide is persuasive in its comical misadventures, the style gets old just as it did in The Misfortunes of Virtue. The story becomes a trite joke that loses its potency with each subsequent catastrophe, so that half way through the novel the reader no longer cares what befalls Candide and begins to pray that some benevolent deity will put him out of his (and our) misery. If I were not so thoroughly desensitized to tragedy, and had I not already come to the philosophical conclusions that Voltaire is trying to lead his reader, than I might have found the novel to be more profound. Still the novel is well written, reads quickly if you ignore the endnotes*, and is fairly entertaining. The worst part of this novel is the numerous jabs that Voltaire throws at his contemporary rivals, which I found to be completely annoying. If the author chooses to use his novel as a means of disseminating propaganda against his opponents so be it, but don't expect it to translate well into a time when you and all those other characters are long since dead. Attacking ridiculous ideas is one thing, but forcing the reader (ME) to endure century old grudges through less than subtle personal attacks is something entirely different. Even after reading the "titillating tidbits" supplied by the annotator -- e.g. "The Journal de Trevoux, founded in 1701, was a Jesuit periodical hostile to Voltaire" or "Gabriel Gauchat, a contemporary critic hostile to Voltaire and the Encyclopedists" -- I still have no clue what or who Voltaire is attacking. * Every time I was compelled to read an endnote just to find out that Voltaire was referencing some long forgotten Frenchmen I wanted to fling the book across the room.
Rating:
Summary: Surpringly not boring!
Review: When I started this very short book, I expected it to be a drone-fest from the 1700s. However I was pleasantly surprised to find the story gripping, the satire comical and devious, and my time well spent. I even read sections of the book to younger siblings of ages 10 and 6, and they paid attention with great detail. I would highly recommend this book as a classic for a reason.
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