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adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, Deportation
This was the best book for me to read at this moment in time! Right now, things have gone wrong with us financially, physically, emotionally and in just about every way. The last time this happened, I picked up Why Bad Things Happen To Good People and it felt "right". This time around, the satire and black humor was just right for me!
One thing that is really cool is that Candide's story is timeless, even though it was written in the 18th century! At some point, most people suffer and some more so than others. Why? Well, one theory is that everything happens for a reason so look for the silver lining in the cloud. It was meant to be. It's all for the best. Sometimes I find that idea comforting.
It's pretty clear that Voltaire didn't and, in fact, it angered him to the point he wrote a really funny book about it all.
Candide is a priviliged young man living at the estate of a very wealthy man. His tutor is Dr. Pangloss whose teachings revolve around turning Candide into the eternal optimist, no matter what awful things occur. Candide is ejected forcibly from his comfortable home for making a move on the baron's attractive daughter.
He then goes through some of the worst stuff that could possibly happen to a person. Just one of these calamaties alone would cause a person to fall into despair, but not Candide. I won't go into all of his experience here except for one example. As he, his tutor Dr. Pangloss (who's fallen into ruin himself), and their benefactor sail into Lisbon, there's a huge storm that wrecks the ship and drowns the friend who was caring for them. Dr. Pangloss explains it all away: the harbor was placed there just so that this storm could come and wreck the ship and kill almost everyone on board. Then they are hit by an earthquake, but that was as it's supposed to be, too. Earthquakes happen in Lisbon. It's the best that could happen and was meant to be.
I was just rolling on the floor laughing so hard I almost cried.
The reason this is a timeless book is that you could substitute what happened in Lisbon for what happened during the Christmas tsunami of two years ago. Try telling the survivors it was all for the best and meant to be because tsunamis happen in that part of the world.
The book isn't long at all and it's very easy to read, something that is rare in a classic (for me, anyway). I thoroughly enjoyed it and I know others would too!
One thing that is really cool is that Candide's story is timeless, even though it was written in the 18th century! At some point, most people suffer and some more so than others. Why? Well, one theory is that everything happens for a reason so look for the silver lining in the cloud. It was meant to be. It's all for the best. Sometimes I find that idea comforting.
It's pretty clear that Voltaire didn't and, in fact, it angered him to the point he wrote a really funny book about it all.
Candide is a priviliged young man living at the estate of a very wealthy man. His tutor is Dr. Pangloss whose teachings revolve around turning Candide into the eternal optimist, no matter what awful things occur. Candide is ejected forcibly from his comfortable home for making a move on the baron's attractive daughter.
He then goes through some of the worst stuff that could possibly happen to a person. Just one of these calamaties alone would cause a person to fall into despair, but not Candide. I won't go into all of his experience here except for one example. As he, his tutor Dr. Pangloss (who's fallen into ruin himself), and their benefactor sail into Lisbon, there's a huge storm that wrecks the ship and drowns the friend who was caring for them. Dr. Pangloss explains it all away: the harbor was placed there just so that this storm could come and wreck the ship and kill almost everyone on board. Then they are hit by an earthquake, but that was as it's supposed to be, too. Earthquakes happen in Lisbon. It's the best that could happen and was meant to be.
I was just rolling on the floor laughing so hard I almost cried.
The reason this is a timeless book is that you could substitute what happened in Lisbon for what happened during the Christmas tsunami of two years ago. Try telling the survivors it was all for the best and meant to be because tsunamis happen in that part of the world.
The book isn't long at all and it's very easy to read, something that is rare in a classic (for me, anyway). I thoroughly enjoyed it and I know others would too!
A rambling tale meant to challenge the viewpoint of everything that happens is for the best.
challenging
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
read in a sitting last night and it was generally enjoyable !! reading my dad's college copy, littered with haphazard annotations was a really sweet and sentimental experience. that being said, i feel i must spend more time with candide to fully grasp it. due to either clunky translation or writing conventions of 1750s french novels...i found myself confused by the pacing. i was entertained, but the jumpy, spastic timeline was certainly something i had to get used to. the work is ripe with satire that i really had to take the time to understand, given that my understanding of french history is rather shallow. all that to say, while i enjoyed this read-through, i'd love to return to candide; i think he has much more to teach me.
A bizarre array of events dwell within the pages of this novel. While Voltaire is one of my top wordsmiths for quotations (and check out that hair!), Candide was initially exquisite and later bafflingly, maddeningly monotonous.
Candide is happy-go-lucky, blithely bound to the world and held by absurd passions; never feeling wronged and always moving forward, to the point that he, like Pangloss, sticks to his guns as though unaware that he has the ability to make his own decisions. The story tumbles along in Candide's wake, never resolving anything except the incorrectly-assumed deaths of many of his closest relations.
Similarly, Candide's relationship with the Baroness' daughter, Miss Cunegund, is never as sweet and magical as their first encounters - which is a beautiful passage:
The miss dropped her handkerchief, the young man picked it up. She innocently took hold of his hand, and he as innocently kissed hers with a warmth, a sensibility, a grace-all very particular; their lips met; their eyes sparkled; their knees trembled; their hands strayed. The Baron chanced to come by; he beheld the cause and effect, and, without hesitation, saluted Candide with some notable kicks in the breech and drove him out of doors. The lovely Miss Cunegund fainted away, and, as soon as she came to herself, the Baroness boxed her ears. Thus a general consternation was spread over this most magnificent and most agreeable of all possible castles.
Though it begins with so much promise, the extent of Candide's timelessness wears off after the first couple of chapters. A delightful beginning to a disappointing middle and end. C'est la vie!
http://unculturedcritic.com
Candide is happy-go-lucky, blithely bound to the world and held by absurd passions; never feeling wronged and always moving forward, to the point that he, like Pangloss, sticks to his guns as though unaware that he has the ability to make his own decisions. The story tumbles along in Candide's wake, never resolving anything except the incorrectly-assumed deaths of many of his closest relations.
Similarly, Candide's relationship with the Baroness' daughter, Miss Cunegund, is never as sweet and magical as their first encounters - which is a beautiful passage:
The miss dropped her handkerchief, the young man picked it up. She innocently took hold of his hand, and he as innocently kissed hers with a warmth, a sensibility, a grace-all very particular; their lips met; their eyes sparkled; their knees trembled; their hands strayed. The Baron chanced to come by; he beheld the cause and effect, and, without hesitation, saluted Candide with some notable kicks in the breech and drove him out of doors. The lovely Miss Cunegund fainted away, and, as soon as she came to herself, the Baroness boxed her ears. Thus a general consternation was spread over this most magnificent and most agreeable of all possible castles.
Though it begins with so much promise, the extent of Candide's timelessness wears off after the first couple of chapters. A delightful beginning to a disappointing middle and end. C'est la vie!
http://unculturedcritic.com
I don't understand why this book has a lower rating because this is one of the funniest books I've read in a while. Within two pages I was almost crying with laughter, and books rarely make me laugh out loud. Voltaire is something special, and I wish that he had written more books because he had such a unique storytelling style that really set him apart from other authors from his time. He knows how to write a fun, enjoyable story that is just the right length to keep his readers completely engaged and knows the right pace to put his story at so that it doesn't become too overwhelming or dull. I usually think of classic literature from Voltaire's time as being incredibly formal and philosophical, so I liked how drastically different this book was from those expectations. There's something about the fact that this book was written in the 18th century that made the story's humor and brashness even more hilarious.
This book was such a roller coaster, and I ate every sentence of it up. I am a simple person: I see a character thrown around like a rag doll and I laugh. I couldn't even feel bad for Candide because it was so funny seeing his foolishness get him into the stupidest situations. That poor man never even had a second of rest before being thrown something else, and that kept my attention. I never really got bored at any point because I was so engaged in the story. I thought the pacing was quite fast, but it was better that way because it allowed for so much stuff to happen super quickly. It kept the ball rolling and it made every single page equally exciting because they all had something wacky on them. I tend to find random things in older works really funny for no reason just because the writing style and language is so absurd to me, so that made the funny lines even funnier. A sentence like "she didn't love him" becomes 10000 times funnier when it's written as "alas, the wench had eyes not for him." Again: I am a simple person and the dumbest things make me laugh.
As much as I liked the book, I do think it got less enjoyable as the book went on. The first third was definitely 5 stars, the second third was pretty great, but not as amazing as the first third, and the final third was only good. Not great, just good. My favorite books are the ones that get better and better as the story progresses, and it always sucks when a book gets worse because it starts off with a bang and slowly lets you down. I'd rather start with lower expectations and get surprised with how amazing it ended up being. In some ways I'm glad that it had such a great beginning because my interest was immediately caught, but I would have liked to see the same level of quality and humor as the story continued. This book is about the world's most fortunate, unfortunate person, and as the end neared he started to morph into just a person. I guess you could argue that that was the inevitable outcome as he finally was given peace, or as much peace as someone like him could have gotten, but that did end up being the reason why I decided to give this book four stars instead of five.
Overall this was such a fun book and I don't regret picking it up. I really want to see the opera production of this story as well, and I want to see which format suits the story better. I was absolutely obsessed with the soundtrack growing up, especially the overture, so 10-year-old me will always be nostalgic to the music, and to the book in general, even though I didn't know anything about the story at that age. I actually made up my own story based purely around the music, but I will say that the actual story is more exciting and interesting than the one I came up with. I had such a great time reading this book and it will always have a special place in my heart because of how much it made me laugh. Such an enjoyable story that was so hilarious and immersive. I know I will reread this book many many times in my life and will speak highly of it whenever it is brought up.
This book was such a roller coaster, and I ate every sentence of it up. I am a simple person: I see a character thrown around like a rag doll and I laugh. I couldn't even feel bad for Candide because it was so funny seeing his foolishness get him into the stupidest situations. That poor man never even had a second of rest before being thrown something else, and that kept my attention. I never really got bored at any point because I was so engaged in the story. I thought the pacing was quite fast, but it was better that way because it allowed for so much stuff to happen super quickly. It kept the ball rolling and it made every single page equally exciting because they all had something wacky on them. I tend to find random things in older works really funny for no reason just because the writing style and language is so absurd to me, so that made the funny lines even funnier. A sentence like "she didn't love him" becomes 10000 times funnier when it's written as "alas, the wench had eyes not for him." Again: I am a simple person and the dumbest things make me laugh.
As much as I liked the book, I do think it got less enjoyable as the book went on. The first third was definitely 5 stars, the second third was pretty great, but not as amazing as the first third, and the final third was only good. Not great, just good. My favorite books are the ones that get better and better as the story progresses, and it always sucks when a book gets worse because it starts off with a bang and slowly lets you down. I'd rather start with lower expectations and get surprised with how amazing it ended up being. In some ways I'm glad that it had such a great beginning because my interest was immediately caught, but I would have liked to see the same level of quality and humor as the story continued. This book is about the world's most fortunate, unfortunate person, and as the end neared he started to morph into just a person. I guess you could argue that that was the inevitable outcome as he finally was given peace, or as much peace as someone like him could have gotten, but that did end up being the reason why I decided to give this book four stars instead of five.
Overall this was such a fun book and I don't regret picking it up. I really want to see the opera production of this story as well, and I want to see which format suits the story better. I was absolutely obsessed with the soundtrack growing up, especially the overture, so 10-year-old me will always be nostalgic to the music, and to the book in general, even though I didn't know anything about the story at that age. I actually made up my own story based purely around the music, but I will say that the actual story is more exciting and interesting than the one I came up with. I had such a great time reading this book and it will always have a special place in my heart because of how much it made me laugh. Such an enjoyable story that was so hilarious and immersive. I know I will reread this book many many times in my life and will speak highly of it whenever it is brought up.
I really liked it! (That's what 4 stars mean wait)
I loved the randomness of the happenings in this book. Such a dynamic action made it truly atractive for me, apart from the excellent satire of the cliche characters and customs of the time. Loved the way the author treats misfortunes in this novel. I think are plenty more disgraces and deaths in the first three chapters here than in all the books of Game of Thrones!
As an advice for the possible readers, it is recommendable to be in touch or have a minimal notion of Leibniz and Voltaire's philosophy. That's all. Now go read it!
I loved the randomness of the happenings in this book. Such a dynamic action made it truly atractive for me, apart from the excellent satire of the cliche characters and customs of the time. Loved the way the author treats misfortunes in this novel. I think are plenty more disgraces and deaths in the first three chapters here than in all the books of Game of Thrones!
As an advice for the possible readers, it is recommendable to be in touch or have a minimal notion of Leibniz and Voltaire's philosophy. That's all. Now go read it!
dark
funny