Candide

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Summary: Voltaire's witt and views combine in this delightfull tale
Review: A brilliant member of what historians have deemed the philosophes, Voltaire's views on government and church are comical at worst. Voltaire's Candide is clearly a stab at the church of his time, a church unwilling to accept what are now basic scientific truths such as the earth orbiting the sun (and not the other way around). The church is painted in a less than flatering light, seeing as a few characters in Candide include the daughter of the pope, a monk with a favorite prostitute, and an Inquisitor with an illegitamate lover. Characters such as Doctor Pangloss display brilliantly the ancient thought, painting it (perhaps a bit too exaggerated)in a way nearly blind to the real world. Pangloss's views of all things happening "for the best of all possible worlds" is clearly defied in the story which is in essence a collection of horrific stories painted in a comical array of words. The innate sarcasm in the book pokes a great deal of fun at the thinking of the times, and yet Candide's views are applicable today. Truly an entertaining and intellectually stimulating book, Candide is one of the greatest works of its time.

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Summary: Why Voltaire write Candide?
Review: I read this book because it is a required book in my History class. When I read the book for the first time, I did not understand much of it. However, after doing some research about Voltaire and his work, I think that Candide is a really good book. Voltaire is a good author since he can smoothly write his arguements toward Liebniz and Alexander Pope. Candide criticizes the optimitism of Liebniz and Alexander Pope's belief that "All is best of all possible worlds." Voltaire first thought that Alexander Pope is a great poet in his and he admires him. He even says that he can not write as good as him.However, after the earthquake in Lisbon earthquake in Lisbon in November 1755 which killed two third of the city, he doubts the belief that become very popular at that time. He realizes that Alexander Pope is the same as Leibniz. He finds that their optimitism is ridiculous. He questions the belief and finally writes a poem about the earthquake in Lisbon. He soon gets replies from Rousseau. Nevertheless, Voltaire replies the Rousseau's letter by simply saying that he was sick and couldn't talk anything about it. Few years later, Candide was produced which also replies Rousseau's letter. He actually denies that he is the writer of this book because he is afraid of the punishment, but everybody knows that he is the writer. Candide's books were burn as soon as it is being published because of its strong criticism. In conclusion, the book is really great and Candide was the best of such in Voltaire's.

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Summary: Witty, Insight about General Topics of Life
Review: Much as in The Autocrat at the Breakfast Table, in which ideas are thrown around under the premise of a breakfast room table conversation, Voltaire expresses his philosophical insights by having his character (Candide) engage himself in a number of conversations with a wide range of people. The book is intriguing and is filled with excellent topics for conversation.

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Summary: Voltaire is a genius!
Review: The satire in this novel, i.e., Candide is poignant and clever. Voltair saves the best line for last though. Pangloss states as he does throughout the entire book that this is the best of all worlds. Candide's response is the following: 'That's true enough," Said Candide;"but we must go and work in the garden"

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Summary: Daintily philosophical, extremely funny
Review: Voltaire has a knack for satire. Candide is an excellent example. If you are familiar with the philosophy of Leibniz, you will find this book somewhat philosophical. It makes fun of Leibniz's belief that this is the best of all possible worlds because God created it. It is also just a light, funny read. I particularly enjoyed the part with the eunich and the old woman.

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Summary: If Words are Food for Thought, Candide is a Literary Buffet
Review: As one who prefers light reading, I decided to challenge myself with the highly philosophical Candide, whose slim appearance seemed to promise a quick read. Reader beware: this amazing novel takes you on a journey of thought and rationalizing- you will find yourself reading a page several times for its meaning or becoming lost in long intervals of thought! (Principally, you will ask yourself, "Is there always a good side to everything, or are we trapped in a naturalistic world?") Candide, therefore, is an excellent book for discussion and debate, for it allows the reader to interpret one author's words and theories in so many ways.

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Summary: An excellent political satire
Review: Votaire does an excellent job in showing the political and social beliefs of his time. But in order for one to experience the satire involved in the book, one needs to look at the time at which the book was read, and take in some other readings by Voltaire. To clarify one person's statement that Voltaire did not develop the character's or show the reader his (Candide's) travels, it was simply because he had no time. Candide was written under 48 hours by Voltaire and he was slightly angry when he wrote it (the night before he started, he had been jailed by the government and retaliated by writing a satire).

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Summary: Classic Satire
Review: Writen hundreds of years ago it's just as true today as when Voltaire wrote it. It pokes fun of all members of society from philopsophers and priests to politicians.

Definetely some of the greatest satire written. Right up there with Johnathan Swift.

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Summary: A wonderful tale -- dark and thoroughly amusing
Review: Candide is a very brief, yet wholly amusing satiric thrust at the Christian philosophy of perpetual optimism. Obviously Voltaire couldn't write anything without making a pointed statement of some sort, and in its entirety Candide is no different from his other works. It's a story, of course, but only secondarily; the writer left not a single word devoid of relevance to his point. In fact he tells his tale with very little attention to detail, only concerned with encompassing his main character's lengthy odyssey as quickly as possible. With such an approach, his sole aim was to simply get the message across. In Candide, Voltaire strives to refute the belief that we live in the best of all possible worlds. By documenting his young protagonist's horrendous sufferings and hardships, the philosopher more than implies that misfortune is certainly not part of any divine plan for us. And whether you agree with that or not, I'd still say this book manifests a great deal of provocative insight, not to mention a whole lot of dark, dark humor. I wouldn't call Candide a consistent knock-out -- most of its pages aren't quite laugh-out-loud funny -- but the whole of the story very well tickles the reader with its caustic narrative. So if you're just itching for a short read (most folks could complete this one in a single sitting, I'm sure), look no further. While it may be of very petite proportions, Candide is unarguably a literary classic, as entertaining and surprising and clever as one would hope.

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Summary: Speaks to the Human Condition in Any Era
Review: Candide is far from being ennervated by time. In fact, it may be more relevant now than at any time since Voltaire wrote it in the mid-1700s.

What happens to Candide, Pangloss and all the other main characters in the novel is cruelly absurd. Real life itself, as we can all testify from personal experience, is often just as capricious, nonsensical and painful as the landscape through which Candide moves.

And make no mistake -- this is a novel of movement: movement about the globe, movement up and down the social ladder, movement toward utopia and away, movement toward wisdom hard-won through experience. Voltaire has taken a common-place 16th Century literary form, the picaresque novel, and breathed new life into it. His aim is far higher than the genre's typical morality. In traditional picaresque novels, the hero -- the "picaro" (the genre is Spanish in origin)-- learns through a series of misadventures his place in the grand scheme of things, usually on the underbelly of the society in which he lives.

Candide and Company range far and wide through a myriad of societies, including an Andean utopia, finding no permanent place. Only when they settle on the Propontus in Turkey and settle down as a family, not of blood ties, but of mutual suffering and experience, do they create a space for themselves.

The novel's oft-quoted ending, which has Candide espousing the virtues of tending to one's own garden, is far more than a call to Protestant simplicity and self-denial. The garden Candide and his friends cultivate is a poor recreation of the original garden, the Garden of Eden. But it is theirs, won through misadventure, pain and suffering. Relentlessly pessimistic throughout the novel about the natural state of mankind, Voltaire hints at an optimism in the end, the possibility that the downtrodden can redeem themselves.

This is a fun romp for high school readers and college undergrads will enjoy the overt sexual references scattered throughout. For their teachers, Candide offers the opportunity to show their students that we can all persevere and tend to our own gardens, if we can but recognize the claim of humanity we have upon each other. Enjoy!