Candide (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) [2003 Paperback] Voltaire (Author)Candide (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) [2003 Paperback] by (EPUB)

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⭐I read this this because I missed it in college and also high school English Lit. Very easy and fast to read. Interesting novel.

⭐This 1759 novel by Voltaire is either a satire (on what? life? war?) or a comedy, I’m not really sure. The one thing I know is that the main characters (Candide, Cunegonde, the old woman, Pangloss and a few others) face one catastrophe after another and bounce right back. They are forever thinking that whatever happened must be for the best. Can anyone face as many tragedies as Candide and his friends face and be that optimistic? Wait, I’m having an “aha” moment…that must be the parody. Can you (Candide) get evicted out of a snug castle for kissing someone you love (Cunegonde), get captured by army recruiters from Bulgaria, try to escape and get sentenced to 36 floggings by 2,000 men or have your brains blown out by 12 musket balls…and still think that what happened was for the best? Wait, another “aha” moment…it’s a comedy. It must be because whatever happens to Candide doesn’t seem to affect his enthusiasm for life. What was 1759 prose like? Well, Voltaire’s prose was very stark, leaving nothing to the imagination. After the King of the Bulgars stopped the flogging at 4,000 strokes, “A skillful surgeon cured the flagellated Candide in three weeks…his sores were now skinned over, and he was able to march, when the King of the Bulgarians gave battle to the King of the Abares.”That prose wasn’t very stark, was it? Well how about when Candide decides to leave the battle, “Candide decided to go and reason somewhere else upon causes and effects. After passing over heaps of dead or dying men, the first place he came to was a neighbouring village in the Abarian territories which had been burnt to the ground by the Bulgarians…here lay a number of old men covered with wounds, who beheld their wives dying with their throats cut…the ground about them was covered with brains, arms and legs of dead men.” I didn’t even tell you what happened to the town’s virgins for fear of having my review rejected by Amazon! Anyway, this kind of descriptive (?) writing continues throughout the entire novel. Anyhow, Candide escapes to Holland, where he runs into his old tutor, Pangloss (from the castle), who is now suffering from syphilis. Pangloss tells Candide that the Baron and Baroness were all killed along with Candide’s love, Cunegonde, when the Bulgarians attacked Candide’s former castle. “And as for the castle they have not left one stone upon another. They have destroyed all the ducks and the sheep, the barns and the trees; we have had our revenge, for the Abares have done the very same thing in a neighbouring barony, which belonged to a Bulgarian lord.” This novel is so cruel, yet funny.A anabaptist, named James, cures Pangloss (of course) and they (Candide, Pangloss and the anabaptist) sail for Lisbon, Portugal. Can another calamity happen? Yes, that’s what this novel is about. A tempest hits the ship, the anabaptist drowns, Candide, Pangloss and a nasty sailor make it to shore. As soon as their feet hit the ground, a massive earthquake happens! Woe is me. It destroys three/fourths of the Lisbon. Pangloss is hanged! That’s it, I can’t reveal anymore…there are numerous misfortunes ahead for our survivors (who are they?) and you haven’t met the ‘old woman’ yet. Is Cunegonde really dead? Is anybody really dead? Yes, many characters have been quartered or gutted or hung…or were they? Voltaire was a known satirical polemicist, thus all the hostility in this novel. The Candide version that I read was from the Barnes & Noble classic series and was illustrated with many of the drawings by French artist Jean-Michel Moreau Le Jeune, who had his drawings inserted in later versions of Voltaire’s classic. The drawings were protested by the author to no avail. There are other artist who have illustrated this novel over the years, so I’m not positive these drawings were from Le Jeune. All in all, this was an enjoyable novel, although a little far-fetched. Get a copy of this classic and get ready to cry or laugh…your choice.

⭐Written in 1758, as a satire, this ‘classic’ re-counts the adventures of a rather naïve young man, Candide, who is easily influenced by his personal philosopher, Pangloss; who repeatedly assures him that ‘This is the best of all possible worlds; and,’ therefore, ‘whatever happens must be for the best.’ These assurances, however, are sorely tested as Candide’s story unfolds.It begins when Candide is expelled from the Castle in which he resides for inappropriately touching the beautiful Miss Cunegonde, his one true love. This sets both Candide and his philosopher on the road to many adventures and misadventures, all of which ‘must be for best,’ or so says Pangloss. Somehow, it becomes harder and harder to believe, however, as they are alternately beaten, robber, forced into conscription, sold into slavery, sentenced to death as infidels, accused of murder, chased by the police, cheated out of their property, and attacked by pirates. But, all the while, they are steadfast in their beliefs.To make matters worse, the castle in which the beautiful Cunegonde dwells is attacked and plundered. She is raped, sold into slavery, forced into an unwanted marriage and prostitution, and is eventually, beaten, crippled, and disfigured, and left in abject poverty.In the end, though, as Pangloss might say, everything turns out for the best in this, ‘the best of all possible worlds,’ as Candide, Pangloss, and Cunegonde are reunited and are last seen laboring on their small plot of land, struggling to survive.This is a great book and a great piece of satire. It certainly makes its point; but the thing I liked best about the book is the author’s subtle use of humor which he injects into the story from time-to-time.

⭐There are better translations of this. I read each chapter in French and then in English to check myself. And I started to get a funny feeling. Besides a complete lack of flow in the prose, some of the time I felt like the translator had the wrong end of the stick on this or that bit, but gave him the benefit of the doubt since surely he knows French better than I do. But then in chapter ten he attributed one of Candide’s lines to Cunegonde! Well, that was enough of that. The notes are sometimes useful but some of the time seem to exist just so there are notes, as when Ms. May derives the word bugger from Bulgarian as though that was in French speaking Voltaire’s mind when he had the Bulgarian try to force himself on a woman. There are also illustrations. They are odd and remind me a bit of Aubrey Beardsley and a bit of Dali. Some of the time their connection to the text is not immediately apparent, they are all cut down in size and a few that were originally colored plates are now reproduced obscurely in black and white. I’m not sure I would like in the best of worlds, but if you think you might, there is probably a better edition containing them.

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