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A review by grubstlodger
Cândido ou o Otimismo & O Ingênuo by Voltaire
3.0
Sharper, funnier and nastier than Johnson’s Rasselas (which came out in the same month) - Candide runs out of steam before the end of its 100 pages.
Voltaire is funny though - he can spin a grand paragraph and cut it with a bottom with great skill.
I love how Candide responds to the terrible things that happen to him with a belief that all is for the best, it is a funny refrain and Voltaire takes great pleasure in finding new horrors to befall his characters.
However, in trying to find new things that happen, the book disproves itself. It turns out that much of what happened in the book was indeed for the best, that the trials and tribulations of the characters made them better people and more dependent on each other and if they ‘tend their garden’ together, they will actually achieve happiness - and a happy ending.
I’m completely fine with this moral to the story, for hard on your little patch and work together - but it defanged everything that came before it. I’d have ended it with a Bulgar raid on the farm and have them start over again.
Voltaire is funny though - he can spin a grand paragraph and cut it with a bottom with great skill.
I love how Candide responds to the terrible things that happen to him with a belief that all is for the best, it is a funny refrain and Voltaire takes great pleasure in finding new horrors to befall his characters.
However, in trying to find new things that happen, the book disproves itself. It turns out that much of what happened in the book was indeed for the best, that the trials and tribulations of the characters made them better people and more dependent on each other and if they ‘tend their garden’ together, they will actually achieve happiness - and a happy ending.
I’m completely fine with this moral to the story, for hard on your little patch and work together - but it defanged everything that came before it. I’d have ended it with a Bulgar raid on the farm and have them start over again.