Surprisingly FunnyCandide was written in 1759 so I wasn’t expecting it to be laugh out loud funny, but it was. Have you ever listened to someone who was so dead set in their ideals, but when you actually heard their logic for their ideals that it made absolutely no sense? That is this book. Candide falls in love with a Lady Cunegonde, and for this he is unceremoniously thrown out of the castle. In his journeys, he meets many other people, and he befriends a philosopher, Pangloss, who says that ...

Candide is a real crush! Simply magical. I knew this novel but had never had the pleasure of reading it. Here it is! Candide is the hero of this philosophical tale; he is a character who lives up to his name, wants to be optimistic, and believes in life. We know that he was born in Westphalia, a German kingdom, and is the son of the sister of Sir Baron de Thunder-ten-trench. The latter will raise him with his daughter, Miss Cunégonde, his wife, and a philosopher, Pangloss, whose moral is "all is...

I wonder, is Candide REALLY a veiled parody of Voltaire's over-the-top pal, Jean-Jacques Rousseau? If so, as a fellow former bipolar case, I take exception!I’m afraid this classic and long-winded anarchist rant is still as much Over the Top as nutty Rousseau and me. As it always was for me.Yes...It's still a bit much.Sure, I see what Voltaire is railing at: Effete, Crazy and philosophically Liberal posturing - without a heart.But aren’t theorists of all stripes NOW more or less heartless? Ah, fo...

It seems that I haven't known or understood Voltaire enough to appreciate his most acclaimed work. This reading put me straight since I've revisited this with a fair knowledge of Voltaire's life and philosophy. When I first read this, I found it nonsensical. I didn't know that the whole work was a satirical attack on Leibniz's optimism. Leibniz's philosophy was that we live in the best of possible worlds and that everything happens for the best. Voltaire was highly critical of this theory and ar...

All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds…And following this sententious wisdom Candide embarks on the quest of his life.Never was anything so gallant, so well accoutred, so brilliant, and so finely disposed as the two armies. The trumpets, fifes, hautboys, drums, and cannon made such harmony as never was heard in Hell itself.His adventures begin with war… Wars bring glory to those who are on the winning side… Especially to the monarchs and their generals… As for the rest, they may ...

Re-read for my Open University studies, 2023. Voltaire's novel introduces the reader to Candide, a wide-eyed, calm and slightly bland young gentleman who resides at Castle Westphalia and who believes in the philosophy that "everything in the world is for the best." One of the first scenes is filled with two emotional opposites for Candide who first gets to kiss his love, Cunegonde behind a screen, only to then be kicked out of the castle, literally, by the Baron of Thunder-ten-Tronckh. Here then...

A fast paced, short and entertaining classic. A satire of the philosophic ideas of extreme optimism summarised by “All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds”. A ridiculous number of misfortunes happen to Candide and his companions but he still clings himself of the idea that everything is for the best. The book reminded me of The 100 year old who climbed our of the window and disappeared (or something like that) because of the crazy coincidences and humorous tone.

"Candide" is an accessible masterpiece which demonstrated to the world Volatire's genius as a satirist. The eponymous Candide is a young man tutored by an optimist who is convinced according to the cause and effect philosophy of Leibniz and perhaps is best summarized in Voltaire's leitmotif that human beings live in the "best of all possible worlds." Alexander Pope rather laughably made the same outrageous claim in his "Essay on Man" in which he writes, "Everything that is is right." How can thi...

Slightly disappointed with the next-Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I took on this classic next IN ONE SITTING.&...WOW!Where has this one been all my life? I adore "Candide" because it is rife with adventure, it is a speedy read, and at the very end you experience a vortex of feelings and NOVEL concepts. It transcends literature itself.Compare this to Dante. To Shakespeare! I could not help but smile at all the awful misadventures of our poor fool. This is made for someone, like me, who thinks "The ...

- Bonjour, M. Candide! Bienvenue au site Goodreads! Qu'en pensez-vous?- It's OK, we can speak English. Pour encourager les autres, as one might say.- Eh... super! I mean, good! So, what do you make of twenty-first century Britain?- Vraiment sympathique! I am reading of your little scandale with the expenses of the Houses of Parliament. It is a great moment for la démocratie. Now there will be des élections, the people will be able to choose better representatives, we will see that the country ha...