Candide: Or Optimism (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)"All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds" It was the indifferent shrug and callous inertia that this "optimism" concealed which so angered Voltaire, who found the "all for the best" approach a patently inadequate response to suffering, to natural disasters, not to mention the questions of illness and man-made war. Moreover, as the rebel whose satiric genius had earned him not only international acclaim, but two stays in the Bastille, flogging, and exile, Voltaire knew personally what suffering entailed. In Candide he whisks his young hero and friends through a ludicrous variety of tortures, tragedies, and a reversal of fortune, in the company of Pangloss, a "metaphysico-theologo-comolo-nigologist" of unflinching optimism. The result is one of the glories of eighteenth-century satire. For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. |
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abbé from Périgord Anabaptist Andalusian horses asked autodafé Baron beautiful Brother Girofleo Buenos Aires Bulgars Cacambo Candide and Cacambo Candide and Martin Candide’s captain castle CHAPTER Christian Constantinople Cunégonde’s dear death deposed diamonds Doctor Don Issacar Dutch earth earthquake eighteenth century Eldorado Encyclopédie Essay everything evil eyes fate flogged France French galley gold hanged happened happy honour human hundred Inquisitor Jansenists Jesuit killed King lady Leibniz letter Lisbon Lisbon Disaster looked Louis XIV lovely Cunégonde Mademoiselle Cunégonde Manichean Marquise master Micromégas misfortunes Monsieur mother nature never old woman one’s Optimism Oreillons Pangloss Paquette Paraguay Paris Penguin Périgord Philosophical Dictionary piastres Pococuranté poem Pope possible worlds published replied Candide Reverend Father satire sheep slave Spanish supper Surinam Theatine things Thundertentronckh told took travellers turn Venice vessel Voltaire Voltaire’s Westphalia word wretched young Zadig