Product Description

One of Penguin Classics’s most popular translations— now also in our elegant black spine dress

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #53965 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780140455106
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer, satirist, the embodiment of the 18th-century Enlightenment. Among his best-known works is the satirical short story CANDIDE (1759). Michael Wood (introducer) is currently Straut Professor of English at Princeton. His books include Stendhal, America in the Movies, The Magician's Doubts, Franz Kafka, and The Road to Delphi. Theo Cuffe (translator) has also translated a selection of Voltaire's short stories for Penguin, Micromegas and Other Short Fictions.

Customer Reviews

Take a closer look at the cover!
I read Candide years ago; however, while looking through the shelves of the local bookstore I was stopped dead in my tracks by this new presentation. Enlarge the image of the new cover at the top of the page to be treated to a whimsical stick figure rendition of a majority of the story (complements of Chris Ware, some of his graphic novels include : The Acme Novelty Library, Quimby the Mouse and Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth). However, read the book, not just the cover, for one of the smartest satires ever written.

Candide tells of the outrageous adventures of the naïve Candide, who steadfastly believes that "all is for the best" even when faced with the injustice, suffering, and despair of the world. Following his eviction from his home for a tryst with his stepsister, he sets out to find the "best of all possible worlds" that his mentor Dr. Pangloss cannot stop extolling. Althewhile Candide and his friends barely keep from being killed or tourtured at every turn. Controversial for its time (the 18th century) and entertaining still today; Candide is a book that is relevant even now in our society, where "the mania for insisting that all is well when all is by no means well" prevails.

I am an avowed classics hater who could never make it through a single volume of anything in any Literature class. Never in a million years would I have picked up this book if not for a recommendation by Kurt Vonnegut in one of his autobiographical works. He highly recommended Candide, and being my favorite author, I could not help but be intrigued. I found it in the bookstore and it was short enough to read in one sitting.

The sight of this clever new edition brought a wonderful work of literature back into my mind and I just had to read it again. Beware, if you do not have a sense of humor about the human condition or do not understand sarcasm, you may not like this. Everyone else, enjoy!

"O che sciagura d'essere senza coglioni!"
If you thought 18th century satire is irrelevant today, you might want to know the meaning of that Italian phrase, uttered by a eunuch at the sight of an abandoned and beautiful young lady in the story: "Oh, what a misfortune to be without balls!"

If you've made the decision to read Candide already, then this is the version you want to buy. Theo Cuffe's translation is more recent and much better than any other ones out there. I was thinking of purchasing the Oxford World Classics edition - after all, it's a few dollars cheaper and has a few more stories - but after contrasting paragraphs from Candide in either version, I decided Cuffe's superior translation warrants the extra money. This edition is also bound beautifully; it's a paperback but the cover is much firmer than a regular paperback and is adorned with eye-catching comic strips and a useful list (with pictures) of the main characters on the inside flap of the cover. This edition also has very thorough footnotes at the end; if you're like me and have little acquaintance with the 18th century and life through the era of Enlightenment, the handy footnotes will graciously guide your way. Aside from the footnotes, this edition also has additional pertinent writings from Voltaire including a poem he wrote on the disaster of the Lisbon earthquake and some excerpts from his Philosophic Dictionary.

Now, if you haven't made up your mind as to whether you'd like to read this, I strongly urge that you do. It's a rather short story but a very profound one. It's extremely witty, clever, and yet masterfully laconic. The story itself is an assault on the philosophic concept of "Optimism" as championed by Leibniz, Alexander Pope, and various other contemporaries of Voltaire who believed that all that happens in the world is for the best, and that we live in the best of all possible worlds. As Pope himself said famously, "whatever IS, is good." Candide, the young, naive and charming protagonist of our story is very much swayed in the direction of believing in Optimism because of the teachings of his philosopher teacher Pangloss. But as Candide inadvertently travels the world, matures, and learns from the sight of reality beyond the corridors of his residence at Westphalia, his perceptions begin to change, and we begin to develop nothing short of a sense for everything that is meaningful and meaningless in life. As Gustave Flaubert once said, the prose of Voltaire is mesmerizing and yet ingeniously succinct. You'll know the feeling once you travel the land of Eldorado, where people are indifferent to diamonds and gold lying in their streets and where everything is in perfect harmony, with non-other than the worthy Candide.

Great edition; better book
When I imagined what 18th-century literature would be like, I figured there'd be lots of dated, archaic humor and cultural references I'd never understand. CANDIDE, as it happens, contains anything but the former, and very few of the latter.

In fact, this turned out to be the funniest book I've ever read--and I've read Pynchon, Vonnegut, and plenty of others. The absurdity of the novel and the nonchalance of its delivery are simply hilarious. Voltaire makes no attempt to conform to his time's--or even ours'--standard of decency: expect a slew of satire, an unprecedented (by 1759) dark sense of humor, and a message that the author will stop at nothing to convey. Voltaire will force his thesis down your throat, and you'll feel no desire to resist. Voltaire exposes the imperfection of our world and the fallacies of blind optimism with relentless wit and bluntness.

Penguin's Deluxe Classics edition of this is very handsome, and has laugh-out-loud material plastered all across the cover and inside flaps of the book--though watch out; minor spoilers abound!

This is a quick read, a classic, and a blast that you'll regret ends as soon as it does. Highly recommended.