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  • I read this on the beach in Cape May. A girl I was seeing at the time was with me. She related later that she had shared with her mother what I was reading. According to the mother, "Any boy who reads Candide in his spare time is a keeper."

    We did not last.

    

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• ― Batona said on Mar 24, 2007 | 1 feedback| 1 feedback

Candide is the story of a gentle man who, though pummeled and slapped in every direction by fate, clings desperately to the belief that he lives in "the best of all possible worlds." On the surface a witty, bantering tale, this eighteenth-century classic is actually a savage, satiric thrust at the philosophical optimism that proclaims that all disaster and human suffering is part of a benevolent cosmic plan. Fast, funny, often outrageous, the French philosopher's immortal narrative takes Candide around the world to discover that -- contrary to the teachings of his distringuished tutor Dr. Pangloss -- all is not always for the best. Alive with wit, brilliance, and graceful storytelling, Candide has become Voltaire's most celebrated work.

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