Google Preview

• .

  • 

  • 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.

    

    Is this helpful?

• ― Batona said on Mar 24, 2007 about the Paperback edition| 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.


From the Paperback edition.

Groups with this in collection

The Novel 100 (26)

• Classic12年級英文課讀的highscoolfictionsatirefrench lit16-18th century lit18Cle pireclassics
• See all (17)