Candide, or Optimism (Penguin Classics)

by Michael Wood (Introduction), Francois Voltaire (Author), Michael Wood (Introduction), Theo Cuffe (Editor), Theo Cuffe (Translator), Francois Voltaire (Author), Michael Wood (Introduction)

• New

  Illustrated
  2006

  $9.96

  Voltaire's brilliant satirical assault on what he saw as the naively optimistic philosophy of the Enlightenment, Candide, or Optimism is a dazzling picaresque novel, translated and edited by Theo Cuffe with an introduction by Michael Wood in Penguin Classics. Brought up in the household of a German Baron, Candide is an open-minded young man whose tutor, Pangloss, has instilled in him the belief, inspired by Leibniz, that 'all is for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds'. But when his love for the Baron's rosy-cheeked daughter is discovered, Candide is cast out to make his own fortune. As he and his various companions roam over the world, an outrageous series of disasters befall them - earthquakes, syphilis, a brush with the Inquisition, murder - sorely testing the young hero's optimism. In Candide, Voltaire threw down an audacious challenge to the philosophical views of his time, to create one of the most glorious satires of the eighteenth century. Theo Cuffe's translation brilliantly conveys Voltaire's acerbic humour. In his introduction, Michael Wood discusses Voltaire's satirical attack on contemporary philosophy. This edition also contains a map, extensive notes, table of dates, further reading and appendices including extracts from Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary. Francois-Marie Arouet (1694-1778), better known by his pseudonym Voltaire, was a French writer and satirist, the embodiment of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. Among his best-known works is the satirical novel Candide (1759). If you enjoyed Candide, you might like Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, also available in Penguin Classics. 'The prince of philosophical novels' John Updike, author of Rabbit, Run '[An] excellent new translation' Robert McCrum, Observer

• New

  Paperback
  2007

  $16.42

  With its vibrant new translation, perceptive introduction, and witty packaging, this new edition of Voltaire's masterpiece belongs in the hands of every reader pondering our assumptions about human behavior and our place in the world. Candide tells of the hilarious adventures of the naive Candide, who doggedly believes that all is for the best even when faced with injustice, suffering, and despair. Controversial and entertaining, Candide is a book that is vitally relevant today in our world pervaded by-as Candide would say- the mania for insisting that all is well when all is by no means well.