Scan barcode
mittland's review against another edition
4.0
I huffed a laugh through my nose several times. that's high praise. lot of fun, with several great on-the-nose satirical observations, and overall of course very bleak in its worldview. I do enjoy the gross, raw realism employed in these early satires - surprised by the lack of poop jokes, I couldn't find a single one
anomandrewrake's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
pascalibrary's review against another edition
5.0
In the best of all possible worlds, all is for the best. This belief, based on Leibniz’s philosophy, is torn down in what is essentially a narrative argument that showcases how brutal, careless, and arbitrary the world can truly be. Perhaps fate does exist in this world and Candide’s, the amount of coincidences surely hint at this, yet it is the point of the book that fate does not necessarily guarantee the best outcome. Candide and his fellows encounter war, war crimes, murder, torture, injustice, and other horrific things. He begins the novel believing Pangloss, a Leibniz stand-in, who teaches him this optimistic view. After repeated awful events, and his time with a more pessimistic philosopher, Martin, Candide abandons this philosophy.
Much of the book is negative, it is an attack and doesn’t erect or support any new system of belief, save possibly for the ending. Candide and most of his friends survive, and end up living an idle, boring life where they occasionally debate philosophy. Everyone becomes dissatisfied. It is even questioned whether tragedy or boredom is preferable. They eventually settle on a plan to work without much theorizing, and they exercise their talents and become satisfied. The final page has Pangloss restating his optimism about fate, followed by this: “‘well said,’ replied Candide, ‘but we must cultivate our garden.’”
It’s a powerful view. Candide learns to accept a level of determinism in the world, accepts fate, but refuses to become a victim of it. Rather than let himself drift in the currents of cause and effect since “all is for the best”, he chooses to exercise his willpower and improve the world and his situation. This exact same type of thinking still pervades everyday speech. People say that “everything will work out in the end”, or “trust in the process” or “it’s for the best” or “its all according to x’s plan”, whatever. These thoughts have the same effect as Pangloss’s philosophy, but Voltaire rejects this. We have to embrace our agency and work at our situations rather than blindly trusting the world to unfold positively.
The book, while absurdly brutal and dark in places, is also quite humorous. I’m bad about thinking of historical peoples as somehow different than we currently are, and sure, we have different technology and values, but humor has seemed to stay somewhat constant. It just reminded me of a shared humanity that it’s easy for me to forget about.
The satirical elements are brilliantly utilized by Voltaire to attack nearly everything. Absurd social rituals and rules, incoherent philosophies, romantic and unconditional love, hierarchical structures, etc. I walked away from the book with a refreshing view that everything I encounter is strange and contingent, changeable.
Definitely an excellent read. The only warning I would have is the violence. It’s very extreme, particularly against the women in the novel, but it has a point.
Much of the book is negative, it is an attack and doesn’t erect or support any new system of belief, save possibly for the ending. Candide and most of his friends survive, and end up living an idle, boring life where they occasionally debate philosophy. Everyone becomes dissatisfied. It is even questioned whether tragedy or boredom is preferable. They eventually settle on a plan to work without much theorizing, and they exercise their talents and become satisfied. The final page has Pangloss restating his optimism about fate, followed by this: “‘well said,’ replied Candide, ‘but we must cultivate our garden.’”
It’s a powerful view. Candide learns to accept a level of determinism in the world, accepts fate, but refuses to become a victim of it. Rather than let himself drift in the currents of cause and effect since “all is for the best”, he chooses to exercise his willpower and improve the world and his situation. This exact same type of thinking still pervades everyday speech. People say that “everything will work out in the end”, or “trust in the process” or “it’s for the best” or “its all according to x’s plan”, whatever. These thoughts have the same effect as Pangloss’s philosophy, but Voltaire rejects this. We have to embrace our agency and work at our situations rather than blindly trusting the world to unfold positively.
The book, while absurdly brutal and dark in places, is also quite humorous. I’m bad about thinking of historical peoples as somehow different than we currently are, and sure, we have different technology and values, but humor has seemed to stay somewhat constant. It just reminded me of a shared humanity that it’s easy for me to forget about.
The satirical elements are brilliantly utilized by Voltaire to attack nearly everything. Absurd social rituals and rules, incoherent philosophies, romantic and unconditional love, hierarchical structures, etc. I walked away from the book with a refreshing view that everything I encounter is strange and contingent, changeable.
Definitely an excellent read. The only warning I would have is the violence. It’s very extreme, particularly against the women in the novel, but it has a point.
katya_m's review against another edition
A este não faço review com medo de arder no inferno...
Candide, ou l'optimisme foi provavelmente escrito entre os anos de 1757 1758 e publicado pela primeira vez em 1759. Sabemos, através da correspondência e dos diários de Voltaire e dos seus próximos que nos últimos meses de 1758 o autor decidiu fazer uma revisão final ao texto e preparar a publicação. Sabendo que o conteúdo do livro daria origem à sua proibição, Voltaire optou directamente por uma edição clandestina, como já havia feito outras vezes. Para dificultar a vida às autoridades, o livro foi impresso separadamente e distribuído a partir de vários centros de edição em simultâneo - na Suiça, na Holanda e em França. Foi uma ampla manobra de logistica e promoção editorial que permitiu rapidamente encher o mercado europeu de exemplares do Candide. Para baralhar as pistas, eram falsos os locais de impressão e os nomes das oficinas indicados nas folhas de título, e o livro foi arribuido a um pseudónimo evidente.
N. do tradutor
"Trabalhemos sem dissertar, disse Martinho; é o único meio de tornar a vida suportável..."
170
E está tudo dito.
Candide, ou l'optimisme foi provavelmente escrito entre os anos de 1757 1758 e publicado pela primeira vez em 1759. Sabemos, através da correspondência e dos diários de Voltaire e dos seus próximos que nos últimos meses de 1758 o autor decidiu fazer uma revisão final ao texto e preparar a publicação. Sabendo que o conteúdo do livro daria origem à sua proibição, Voltaire optou directamente por uma edição clandestina, como já havia feito outras vezes. Para dificultar a vida às autoridades, o livro foi impresso separadamente e distribuído a partir de vários centros de edição em simultâneo - na Suiça, na Holanda e em França. Foi uma ampla manobra de logistica e promoção editorial que permitiu rapidamente encher o mercado europeu de exemplares do Candide. Para baralhar as pistas, eram falsos os locais de impressão e os nomes das oficinas indicados nas folhas de título, e o livro foi arribuido a um pseudónimo evidente.
N. do tradutor
"Trabalhemos sem dissertar, disse Martinho; é o único meio de tornar a vida suportável..."
170
E está tudo dito.
dharma_s's review against another edition
5.0
I was actually laughing, loudly and in public as I read this book. Who knew Voltaire was funny?
serafim's review against another edition
3.5
genuinely funny and i appreciate the philosophical thesis
french level: surprisingly easy to understand for an 18th century text
french level: surprisingly easy to understand for an 18th century text
spadeano's review against another edition
dark
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
dyno8426's review against another edition
3.0
Voltaire has created a parody of a romantic and an optimist through this funny, fast and succinct book - a modern satire on the philosophical optimism of our inhabited world being "the best of all possible worlds", under the design and will of some metaphysical power like "God". The force of cynicism is strong with this one. Gods across cultures and history have taken precedence and responsibility to man's actions and relieved them of the moral responsibility to some extent. By presenting a continuous degradation of the protagonist Candide, as he travels around the world in the cycles of hopes and despair over his pursued love of Cunegonde, the author puts the classic contradiction of all existing misery, suffering and evil of the world against the watchful eyes of a benevolent God or a meaningful, pleasure-filled playground of humans to play upon. Candide's journey and all the fellow travellers he encounters on his way are all sufferers of violence, deceit, greed, molestation, selfishness, cruelty, dishonesty, and all other sorts of vices the extremes of which have made life unbearable and metaphorical hell on earth for some. The pervasiveness of evil in human beings without a counterbalance of reinforcing morality is hopeless, and definitely irreconcilable in the realm of optimism. Despite continuous challenges to Candide's philosophical teachings, he stubbornly tethers himself to the ledge of optimism, resting on a "grander design" at some metaphysical level, trying not to fall in the abyss of a meaning-devoid existence. His ridiculous devotion to such a placating thought is heightened to levels of irrationality when he gives up a happily fulfilled future in an almost perfect place just in the pursuit of his ever-pursued vision of beauty. There is a strong enough analogy with anything religious that has divided and destroyed civilisations - largely due to differences in their answers on the topic of leading happy and meaningful lives. The author has wittily criticised all the terrible examples of religious and political leaders from his time and even personally ridiculed few of his competitors and unabashedly and tacitly. The book calls out the pervasive hypocrisy in the value of undeserving things, which again ties up with the dishonesty that human condition supports to hide the vacuity of anything worthy. The book closes in a strange enough, almost absurdist way according to me where, having gone through all the troubles and losing all that he ever wanted and once-acquired that could have made him happy, Candide and some of his fellow sufferers fall back to the modesty of "tending their gardens" - an unclear symbol to me, but tending on the lines of Sisyphus-like tasks that will never appear meaningful unless we reconcile to the absurdity of this burden of life.
“What is this optimism?” said Cacambo.
“Alas!” said Candide, “it is the madness of maintaining that everything is right when it is wrong.”
“Master,” said he, “we come to beg you to tell why so strange an animal as man was made.”
“With what meddlest thou?” said the Dervish; “is it thy business?”
“But, reverend father,” said Candide, “there is horrible evil in this world.”
“What signifies it,” said the Dervish, “whether there be evil or good? When his highness sends a ship to Egypt, does he trouble his head whether the mice on board are at their ease or not?”
“But for what end, then, has this world been formed?” said Candide.
“To plague us to death,” answered Martin.
“What is this optimism?” said Cacambo.
“Alas!” said Candide, “it is the madness of maintaining that everything is right when it is wrong.”
“Master,” said he, “we come to beg you to tell why so strange an animal as man was made.”
“With what meddlest thou?” said the Dervish; “is it thy business?”
“But, reverend father,” said Candide, “there is horrible evil in this world.”
“What signifies it,” said the Dervish, “whether there be evil or good? When his highness sends a ship to Egypt, does he trouble his head whether the mice on board are at their ease or not?”
“But for what end, then, has this world been formed?” said Candide.
“To plague us to death,” answered Martin.
sade's review against another edition
4.0
First off shout out to Le_fino , because i only picked up this book after it popped up on my feed and i saw you gave it 5 stars.. so yeah i totally rate your reviews highly.
Candide is basically a character who could rival the Baudelaire children in the unfortunate stakes. After certain matters causes him to get ejected from his home Candide falls (i say "fall" because these adventures found him no matter what he did) into numerous adventures which test his optimistic take on the world and people in general.
Like most old ass books classics, the fear is it might be highly difficult to understand, what, with the dead english and penchant for characters to speak in riddles get philosophical just to convey a point. but, even though Candide did have a few philosophical speaking moments, the book was mainly an easy, enjoyable, humorous read, spiced up with some wickedly gruesome parts.
I'd definitely read more of Voltaire's work.
krysa_'s review against another edition
challenging
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0