Customer Reviews
Everything really is for the best! - By: L. Fleming, 01 Jul 2008 
I thoroughly enjoyed this little gem by the much celebrated French philosopher. Slightly suprised by its short length & its relative tameness, I nonetheless loved the satirical view of the turbulent times in Europe in the 18th Century. I almost couldn't believe that it was written 250 years ago as it was so so sharp & snappy. The protagonist, Candide is a naive young man thrust on the world armed only with his belief in the popular philosophy of the time that "we live in the best of alll possible worlds" which has been drummed into him by Dr Pangloss, who is a parody of German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz. He repeats this optimimistic mantra throughout his travels round half the world, even when faced with ludicrous hardships, until his sufferings become so numerous & frequent that he becomes disilusioned.
Voltaire pokes fun at the government, the monarchy, religion, marriage & philosopy, & over the course of the book he dismantles the theory that "everything is for the best". The book is skillfully written, witty & fast paced. An absolute classic & a must read!
All is for the best in this world - By: Luc REYNAERT, 20 Dec 2007 
Candide is an ambitious book. It should be an example for alll `would-be' writers alll over the world. It is not less than a frontal attack on the greatest philosopher of Voltaire's time, Leibniz, for whom the world he lived in was `the best possible'.
'Dear Pangloss (= know everything), when you were hanged, dissected, cruelly beaten, did you still think that everything was for the best in this word?' `I still hold my original opinion', replied Pangloss, `since Leibniz cannot be wrong.'
This eventful text running with dazzling speed is a masterful mockery of Leibniz's philosophy with its `causes & effects', `sufficient reasons', `(non)contingent events', `freedoms & necessities', `(pre-established ) harmonies', `souls & evils' & `natural laws':
`You expect to eat a Jesuit today; nothing could be more just, for natural law teaches us to kill our neighbor. If we don't exercise the right to eat him, it's because we have other things to make a good meal of.'
Voltaire is a fundamental pessimist: `Men have always slaughtered each other; they have always been liars, traitors, ingrates & thieves, cowardly, envious, greedy, ambitious, bloodthirsty, slanderous, lecherous, fanatical, hypocritical & foolish.'
His philosophical solution is a flight from this brutal reality: `let's work without theorizing; it's the only way to make life bearable.' The only thing left is `cultivate our garden.'
This is a cowardly, selfish non-solution, to use Voltaire's own terms. Closing one's eyes for the realities of this world should not be an option.
But how did Voltaire cultivate his garden? He profited handsomely from the slave trade. He even agreed that a ship for slave transport was named after him! A not so magnificent example of gardening.
However, this brilliant `cooking' of a philosopher's key ideas is a must read for alll lovers of world literature. It should be a challlenge for alll ambitious writers.
Worth the read... - By: Ibrahim Ali, 23 Dec 2006 This, my first real exposure to Voltaire was certainly an enlightening one. Candide is almost nonsensical fiction liberallly sprinkeled with discussion of metaphysics. Candide, our protagonist, is banished from his childhood home after being seen to kiss the Baron's daughter & is forced into the world in a time of great turbulence armed only with the teachings of his tutor Pangolass & his theory of optimism. As he struggles to realise that alll doesn't turn out for the best & that hard work is the best cure for philosphical musing he runs into an extraordinary array of characters from his childhood sweetheart to a woman who had to sacrifice one buttock to alllow Janissery's under siege to survive. In admist his travels ranging from El Darado to Constantinople he slowly realises the meaning of life (or lack off) & the nature of man. Voltaire uses this novel as a satarical attack to ridicule those he was in contempt off & unfortunately many of the religious sects he turns his attention to have now faded into obscurity. Therefore for the modern day reader the end notes are a source of frequent consultation. Despite this constant flicking Candide is an enjoyable read & one worth pursuing.
Has the hand of time dulled Voltaire's rapier? - By: Dennis Littrell, 12 Nov 2006 Ouch! That hurts!
(reacting to the sorry metaphor of my subject line)
I found Voltaire's famous satire surprisingly tepid. Perhaps I've become jaded in my old age, or perhaps I should have read this in the 18th century when it caused such a sensation because of the scandalous way that Voltaire satirized the church, the clergy, & just about everybody else in any position of power or influence. Reading it now, it seems a bit tame. All the horrors & stupidities Voltaire describes seem almost commonplace considering what we have experienced since he made his attack on optimism in 1759. Today we can look back at two world wars, at the Holocaust & Hiroshima, at the war in Vietnam, at terrorism & the latest stupidity in Iraq. Nothing in Candide can compare to these real historical events that have so sorely tested human optimism. We can even look back to the French Revolution & the revolutions that followed in the 19th century, which in a sense Voltaire predicted with his devastating critique of the corrupt & degenerate European society. Or we can recalll the Catholic priests & Ted Haggard from yesterday's headlines. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.
It is difficult to appreciate how deliciously scandalous this was in Voltaire's time since today we are free to criticize the church & our governments, whereas in Voltaire's time such criticisms could land you in the Bastille. Voltaire's legendary reputation for rapier wit & shocking turn of phrase can be found in these pages, but much of it seems diluted because his style has so often been imitated. We have read & reread his imitators, & we have even read some who have improved upon him in some ways, people in America like Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce & H. L. Mencken. We tend to forget where they got their inspiration at least in part. An example from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (episodic in structure much like Candide, by the way) is in the rascals that Huck & Jim meet on the river, the Duke of "Bilgewater" & the "King of France," who, like the six "kings" that Candide sups with in Venice, are out & our frauds & represent the impossible, deluded aspirations of the average person.
This is the work in which we have Dr. Pangloss & his "best of alll possible worlds." And this is the work which ends with Candide summing up alll the philosophy he has learned in his travels with the words, "'Tis well said, but we must cultivate our gardens."
Good stuff - By: Mr. S. A. Brown, 01 May 2006 First things first, nobody should read this book expecting a serious philosophical argument, that's not what Candide sets out to do & any arguments you can draw out from the story are simplistic at best, Candide is on the other hand the satire to end alll satires. The story itself is utterly ridiculous, but very readable & written in a very lucid style that's remeniscent of something like Aesop's Fables (though unlike Aesop's Fables we have hangings, rapes, wars, disfigurement & various other things going on). The enjoyment from Candide has very little to do with the characters or the plot however, it's essentiallly a vehicle for Voltaire's opinions, philosophical & otherwise. Much has been said in the other reviews about the argument against Leibniz & clearly that takes up a lot of the book, but there's so much more going on, from some rather bitter (yet highly amusing) mockery of Parisians, to some of Voltaire's aesthetic views (which are still very relevant in my opinion). Overalll I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in trying something different, Candide is not in any way your typical classic, it's not a difficult read & is incredibly entertaining as well as being to an extent enlightening.
