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A review by notwellread
Candide by Voltaire
5.0
I enjoyed this far more than I was expecting! It’s the first book I’ve given 5 stars all year. I had to read this for one of my university courses, and I was expecting a three star, maybe four star read – now I think I might name my first born son Voltaire (if I ever have one). I love the rambling style combined with the ruthless satire, which is its central charm in my opinion.
In short, this is amazing so long as you understand the context (although with a little thought it could probably be figured from the text alone). Leibniz, a philosopher from around this time, wrote a theodicy a few years prior to the writing of Candide claiming that we should not doubt God because of the existence of evil because we live in ‘the best of all possible worlds’. This is the idea that Voltaire takes to task and utterly demolishes, by showing a protagonist brought up with this worldview and his constant (and wryly hilarious) conviction that the evil he sees when he goes into the real world is ‘part of a greater plan’ and ‘all for the best’.
A lot of the humour is sexual (or, perhaps I should rather say, ‘of a saucy nature’), which seemed funny to me given the time period. It was full of surprises in this regard – in fact, I am surprised Voltaire got away with it (although, given the Church’s view of him, I suppose he really didn’t: in fact, if you are looking for a banned book to read, perhaps this would actually be a savvy choice?). The protagonist’s unexamined homicidal tendencies are also a great source of amusement.
Also, the chapter titles in my edition gave away the main event of each chapter (in the format of How Candide [did this] or How [this happened]), essentially just plainly telling you what to expect, so if you would rather have the revelations of the plot as you read along I would be wary of this format (though that isn’t really essential to the work, and nonetheless I liked my translation, which can be found on literature.org but I believe is anonymous).
Although it’s very much a product of its philosophical and historical context, I would very much recommend this – even to those who are relatively new to philosophy, since, along with the fact of its brilliance, the humour and narrative makes it much more accessible than most works of its kind, and the ending is surprising, yet at the same time particularly damning.
In short, this is amazing so long as you understand the context (although with a little thought it could probably be figured from the text alone). Leibniz, a philosopher from around this time, wrote a theodicy a few years prior to the writing of Candide claiming that we should not doubt God because of the existence of evil because we live in ‘the best of all possible worlds’. This is the idea that Voltaire takes to task and utterly demolishes, by showing a protagonist brought up with this worldview and his constant (and wryly hilarious) conviction that the evil he sees when he goes into the real world is ‘part of a greater plan’ and ‘all for the best’.
A lot of the humour is sexual (or, perhaps I should rather say, ‘of a saucy nature’), which seemed funny to me given the time period. It was full of surprises in this regard – in fact, I am surprised Voltaire got away with it (although, given the Church’s view of him, I suppose he really didn’t: in fact, if you are looking for a banned book to read, perhaps this would actually be a savvy choice?). The protagonist’s unexamined homicidal tendencies are also a great source of amusement
Spoiler
as is the chapter in which they criticise all the supposed pinnacles of European literature, which is one of the best parts of the whole thing. And I love the line "There is a certain pleasure in having no pleasure" - yes! This is exactly how I feel about loving to hate things, especially bad booksAlso, the chapter titles in my edition gave away the main event of each chapter (in the format of How Candide [did this] or How [this happened]), essentially just plainly telling you what to expect, so if you would rather have the revelations of the plot as you read along I would be wary of this format (though that isn’t really essential to the work, and nonetheless I liked my translation, which can be found on literature.org but I believe is anonymous).
Although it’s very much a product of its philosophical and historical context, I would very much recommend this – even to those who are relatively new to philosophy, since, along with the fact of its brilliance, the humour and narrative makes it much more accessible than most works of its kind, and the ending is surprising, yet at the same time particularly damning.