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I saw a circus based on this at Edinburgh as a child. Now one of my favourite books, with a couple of caveats. First, a description from the wiklop: Candide, ou l'Optimisme, ("Candide, or Optimism") (1759) is a picaresque novel by the Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire. Voltaire never openly admitted to having written the controversial Candide; the work is signed with a pseudonym: "Monsieur le docteur Ralph", literally "Mister Doctor Ralph."
Sardonic in outlook, it follows the naïve protagonist Candide from his first exposure to the precept that "all is for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds," and on through a series of adventures that dramatically disprove that precept even as the protagonist clings to it.
The novel satirizes naïve interpretations of the philosophy of Gottfried Leibniz and is a showcase of the horrors of the 18th century world. In Candide, Leibniz is represented by the philosopher Pangloss, the tutor of the title character. Despite a series of misfortunes and misadventures, Pangloss continually asserts that "Tout est pour le mieux dans le meilleur des mondes possibles" ("All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds").
What I would add to this is twofold. Firstly, this is a very funny, catty, bitchy book, and is structured in nice short chapters. It's like little, precise bites from some kind of nasty animal. I'd be interested in talking about how you feel this structure works.
Secondly, the issue of the antisemitism/Islamophobia. I guess this is always going to crop up in an older text, and I'd be interested to know if you thought the book was particularly nasty in this aspect or simply treating the "orient" as harshly as it treats the occident. The imams certainly seem to be better than the Catholics, what with the "Auto da Fe".
A third point of interest is that, as we can see in this letter, Voltaire denied being the author. I'm not sure what to say about that though, apart from, obvbiously, good for him for sticking it to the (tricorned, gartered) man.
Here is the complete text. |
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