Candide

Title: Candide

Author: Voltaire

Genre: Philosophical Fiction, Satire

Pages: 115

Synopsis:

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 distinguished tutor Dr. Pangloss — all is not always for the best.

(from Goodreads)

My Thoughts:

This is my first reread of this year. I remember reading this back in High School as a result of the Philosophy class, I took. I did like it back then, but when I reread it now my opinion on this book has really changed.

I did like that there was some Philosophical Discussion going on in this book, as I am very into Philosophy. This book is satirizing Philosopher Gottfried Leibniz’s optimistic belief in God’s benevolence and the belief of “all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds”. I also did like some of the historical references in the book such as the Seven Years’ War and the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake. I also will admit I did laugh at some parts of the book.

However, as a story, this is very flawed. All the characters are one-dimensional and there is no real character development, as all the characters remain the same from beginning to end. Our main character Candide is so optimistic it’s naive. I was annoyed by his idiocy and lack of commonsense. There was this one scene where a pirate kept raising the price of taking Candide across the Ocean, and Candide just keeps agreeing to pay the pirate more, even though Candide could just find someone else to take him across the Ocean. The pirate ends up stealing quite a bit of his money. Candide just keeps getting cheated on and he never gets wiser from those experiences.

The plot is very quick as it just goes from plot point to plot point with no breathing room. Within mere sentences, the whole situation changes! There isn’t a whole lot explained either, leaving many gaps in this story. I also felt that Voltaire made his point by the halfway point of this novel, but he just kept going on and on about the same thing throughout the entire novel. As the misfortunes that plague Candide got repetitive really quickly.

Fortunately, this book is very short and is endurable, and can easily be read in less than a day. However, after this re-read, I am not likely am going to reread this again.

Rating: