Scan barcode
A review by sidharthvardhan
Candide by Voltaire
5.0
On its face, Voltaire seems to be just giving a list of tragedies. There is very little by way of story.
Candid seems to have suffered every misery under the sun, and characters of the stories, specially dead ones, keep coming back with their own stories full of miseries.Candid, inspired by his teacher, Dr. Pangloss starts his journey with optimism-to-point-of-fault attitude and ridiculously maintains it on face of much of misery. He is though still better than others, including Pangloss, who maintain their extreme philosophies and are set in their ways. Candid is more open to reason and is very simple minded; yet leaves the land of plenty in search of his love (I mean how stupid is that, and, Voltaire didn't liked it either.)
Voltaire brought out the ugliness of humanity -questioning slavery; the miseries on which luxurious life of French rich is based, absurdity of motion of class (look at Byron's reaction towards the end where Candid tells him about his wish to marry his sister); the forms passion would take (incidence with girls and monkeys) and everything. The mood shifts from sheer optimism to sheer pessimism, to characters who reject everything (including works of art, society etc)
There is very little that Voltaire is willing to offer by way If compensation in conclusion - something to lines of work to survive. The book is a perfect satire on ways of society, and argues that you have to make your peace with it.
Voltaire runs through what he is willing to say quickly, giving no time to think about what he had said, and so, you stand to lose a lot if you are not careful.
Candid seems to have suffered every misery under the sun, and characters of the stories, specially dead ones, keep coming back with their own stories full of miseries.Candid, inspired by his teacher, Dr. Pangloss starts his journey with optimism-to-point-of-fault attitude and ridiculously maintains it on face of much of misery. He is though still better than others, including Pangloss, who maintain their extreme philosophies and are set in their ways. Candid is more open to reason and is very simple minded; yet leaves the land of plenty in search of his love (I mean how stupid is that, and, Voltaire didn't liked it either.)
Voltaire brought out the ugliness of humanity -questioning slavery; the miseries on which luxurious life of French rich is based, absurdity of motion of class (look at Byron's reaction towards the end where Candid tells him about his wish to marry his sister); the forms passion would take (incidence with girls and monkeys) and everything. The mood shifts from sheer optimism to sheer pessimism, to characters who reject everything (including works of art, society etc)
There is very little that Voltaire is willing to offer by way If compensation in conclusion - something to lines of work to survive. The book is a perfect satire on ways of society, and argues that you have to make your peace with it.
Voltaire runs through what he is willing to say quickly, giving no time to think about what he had said, and so, you stand to lose a lot if you are not careful.