Candide Illustarted

Candide is a French satire that begins with a young man who is living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with optimism by his mentor, Professor Pangloss. The work describes the abrupt cessation of this lifestyle, followed by Candide's slow, painful disillusionment as he witnesses and experiences great hardships in the world. The Novel is characterized by its sarcastic tone as well as by its erratic, fantastical and fast-moving plot. It parodies many adventure and romance clichés, the struggles of which are caricatured in a tone that is mordantly matter-of-fact. Still, the events discussed are often based on historical happenings, such as the Seven Years' War and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. Voltaire concludes with Candide, if not rejecting optimism outright, advocating a deeply practical precept, "we must cultivate our garden", in lieu of the Leibnizian mantra of Pangloss, "all is for the best" in the "best of all possible worlds". This satire on Leibniz's philosophy of optimistic determinism remains the work for which Voltaire is best known. François-Marie Arouet (1694-1778), known by his nom de plume Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state. As a satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma, and the French institutions of his day.

David Wootton's scalpel-sharp translation of Candide features a brilliant Introduction, a map of Candide's travels, and a selection of those writings of Voltaire, Leibniz, Pope and Rousseau crucial for fully appreciating this eighteenth-century satiric masterpiece that even today retains its celebrated bite.

This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘Candide; Or, the Optimist by Voltaire - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Collected Works of Voltaire’. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Voltaire includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily. eBook features: * The complete unabridged text of ‘Candide; Or, the Optimist by Voltaire - Delphi Classics (Illustrated)’ * Beautifully illustrated with images related to Voltaire’s works * Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook * Excellent formatting of the textPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles

Candide is characterised by its sarcastic tone, as well as by its erratic, fantastical and fast-moving plot. A picaresque novel with a story similar to that of a more serious bildungsroman, it parodies many adventure and romance clichés, the struggles of which are caricatured in a tone that is mordantly matter-of-fact. Still, the events discussed are often based on historical happenings, such as the Seven Years' War and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. As philosophers of Voltaire's day contended with the problem of evil, so too does Candide in this short novel, albeit more directly and humorously. Voltaire ridicules religion, theologians, governments, armies, philosophies, and philosophers through allegory; most conspicuously, he assaults Leibniz and his optimism. Voltaire's men and women point his case against optimism by starting high and falling low. A modern could not go about it after this fashion. He would not plunge his people into an unfamiliar misery. He would just keep them in the misery they were born to. But such an account of Voltaire's procedure is as misleading as the plaster cast of a dance. Look at his procedure again. Mademoiselle Cunégonde, the illustrious Westphalian, sprung from a family that could prove seventy-one quarterings, descends and descends until we find her earning her keep by washing dishes in the Propontis. The aged faithful attendant, victim of a hundred acts of rape by negro pirates, remembers that she is the daughter of a pope, and that in honor of her approaching marriage with a Prince of Massa-Carrara all Italy wrote sonnets of which not one was passable. We do not need to know French literature before Voltaire in order to feel, although the lurking parody may escape us, that he is poking fun at us and at himself. His laughter at his own methods grows more unmistakable at the last, when he caricatures them by casually assembling six fallen monarchs in an inn at Venice. A modern assailant of optimism would arm himself with social pity. There is no social pity in "Candide." Voltaire, whose light touch on familiar institutions opens them and reveals their absurdity, likes to remind us that the slaughter and pillage and murder which Candide witnessed among the Bulgarians was perfectly regular, having been conducted according to the laws and usages of war. Had Voltaire lived today he would have done to poverty what he did to war. Pitying the poor, he would have shown us poverty as a ridiculous anachronism, and both the ridicule and the pity would have expressed his indignation.

Candide is Voltaire's 1759 satirical masterpiece, wreaking havoc on the excesses of 18th century French Enlightenment culture. The story begins with our protagonist Candide, a young man living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism by his mentor, Professor Pangloss. This idyllic life is abruptly interrupted, however, by a series of painfully disillusioning events that set him off on a wide-ranging journey.

A new, beautifully laid-out, easy-to-read edition of Voltaire's Candide. Candide is Voltaire's 1759 satirical masterpiece, wreaking havoc on the excesses of 18th century French Enlightenment culture. The story begins with our protagonist Candide, a young man living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism by his mentor, Professor Pangloss. This idyllic life is abruptly interrupted, however, by a series of painfully disillusioning events that set him off on a wide-ranging journey. This edition is based on the unattributed 1918 translation published in the U.S. by Boni & Liveright in 1918.François-Marie Arouet (1694-1778), known by his nom de plume Voltaire, was a French enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit and his advocacy for freedom of speech and religion.

The leading figure of the French Enlightenment, Voltaire was a versatile writer, celebrated for his satirical wit and his advocacy of freedom of religion. Voltaire’s oeuvre features works in almost every literary form, including masterpieces in drama, poetry and fiction, as well as historical and scientific literature. This comprehensive eBook presents the largest collection of Voltaire’s works ever compiled in English translation, with numerous illustrations, rare texts appearing in digital print for the first time, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1) * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Voltaire’s life and works * Concise introductions to the novels and other texts * ALL the novels, with individual contents tables * Images of how the books were first published, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts * Excellent formatting of the texts * Famous works are fully illustrated with contemporary artwork * Includes Voltaire’s rare epic poems ‘The Henriade’ and ‘The Maid of Orleans’ – available in no other collection * Voltaire’s rare poems * Includes Voltaire’s plays - spend hours exploring the celebrated plays * Includes a comprehensive range of non-fiction texts * Special criticism section, with essays evaluating Voltaire’s contribution to literature * Features three biographies - discover Voltaire’s literary life * Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles CONTENTS: The Philosophical Fiction ZADIG MICROMEGAS CANDIDE; OR, THE OPTIMIST L’INGÉNU THE MAN OF FORTY CROWNS OTHER PHILOSOPHICAL TALES The Plays OEDIPUS MARIAMNE ZAIRE CAESAR THE PRODIGIAL MEROPE OLYMPIA THE ORPHAN OF CHINA BRUTUS MAHOMET AMELIA SOCRATES ALZIRE ORESTES SÉMIRAMIS CATILINE PANDORA THE SCOTCH WOMAN NANINE THE PRUDE THE TATLER PREFACES TO PLAYS The Poetry THE HENRIADE THE MAID OF ORLEANS THE LISBON EARTHQUAKE AND OTHER POEMS The Philosophical Works LETTERS ON ENGLAND PHILOSOPHICAL LETTERS A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY TOLERATION AND OTHER ESSAYS AN ESSAY ON CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS The Historical Works AGE OF LOUIS XIV THE HISTORY OF PETER THE GREAT, EMPEROR OF RUSSIA HISTORY OF CHARLES XII The Criticism VOLTAIRE by John Cowper Powys VOLTAIRE’S TRAGEDIES by Lytton Strachey VOLTAIRE AND FREDERICK THE GREAT by Lytton Strachey INGERSOLL’S LECTURE ON VOLTAIRE by Robert Green Ingersoll VOLTAIRE AND KING STANISLAS by Henry W. Wolff VOLTAIRE IN THE NETHERLANDS by C. A. Van Sypesteyn The Biographies VOLTAIRE by John Morley VOLTAIRE: A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND WORKS by G. W. Foote and J. M. Wheeler VOLTAIRE: BRIEF BIOGRAPHY by George Saintsbury Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles