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Candide
''Candide, ou l'Optimisme'' (; French: (:kɑ̃did)) is a French satire first published in 1759 by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment.〔 via Gallica〕 The novella has been widely translated, with English versions titled ''Candide: or, All for the Best'' (1759); ''Candide: or, The Optimist'' (1762); and ''Candide: or, Optimism'' (1947).〔Critical Survey of Short Fiction (2001)〕 It begins with a young man, Candide, who is living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism (or simply "optimism") by his mentor, Professor Pangloss.〔(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. 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".
''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.〔Mason (1992), p. 10〕 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.〔〔Aldridge (1975), p. 260〕
As expected by Voltaire, ''Candide'' has enjoyed both great success and great scandal. Immediately after its secretive publication, the book was widely banned because it contained religious blasphemy, political sedition and intellectual hostility hidden under a thin veil of naïveté.〔 However, with its sharp wit and insightful portrayal of the human condition, the novel has since inspired many later authors and artists to mimic and adapt it. Today, ''Candide'' is recognized as Voltaire's ''magnum opus''〔 and is often listed as part of the Western canon; it is among the most frequently taught works of French literature.〔Waldinger (1987), p. ix〕 The British poet and literary critic Martin Seymour-Smith listed ''Candide'' as one of the 100 most influential books ever written.
== Historical and literary background ==
A number of historical events inspired Voltaire to write ''Candide'', most notably the publication of Leibniz's "Monadology", a short metaphysical treatise, the Seven Years' War, and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. Both of the latter catastrophes are frequently referred to in ''Candide'' and are cited by scholars as reasons for its composition.〔Wade (1959b), p. 88〕 The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, tsunami, and resulting fires of All Saints' Day, had a strong influence on theologians of the day and on Voltaire, who was himself disillusioned by them. The earthquake had an especially large effect on the contemporary doctrine of optimism, a philosophical system which implies that such events should not occur. Optimism is founded on the theodicy of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz that says all is for the best because God is a benevolent deity. This concept is often put into the form, "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds" (Fr. ''Tout est pour le mieux dans le meilleur des mondes possibles''). Philosophers had trouble fitting the horrors of this earthquake into the optimist world view.〔Radner & Radner (1998), pp. 669–686〕
Voltaire actively rejected Leibnizian optimism after the natural disaster, convinced that if this were the best possible world, it should surely be better than it is.〔Mason (1992), p. 4〕 In both ''Candide'' and ''Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne'' ("Poem on the Lisbon Disaster"), Voltaire attacks this optimist belief.〔 He makes use of the Lisbon earthquake in both ''Candide'' and his ''Poème'' to argue this point, sarcastically describing the catastrophe as one of the most horrible disasters "in the best of all possible worlds".〔Wade (1959b), p. 93〕 Immediately after the earthquake, unreliable rumours circulated around Europe, sometimes overestimating the severity of the event. Ira Wade, a noted expert on Voltaire and ''Candide'', has analysed which sources Voltaire might have referenced in learning of the event. Wade speculates that Voltaire's primary source for information on the Lisbon earthquake was the 1755 work ''Relation historique du Tremblement de Terre survenu à Lisbonne'' by Ange Goudar.〔Wade (1959b), pp. 88, 93〕
Apart from such events, contemporaneous stereotypes of the German personality may have been a source of inspiration for the text, as they were for ''Simplicius Simplicissimus'', a 1669 satirical picaresque novel written by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen and inspired by the Thirty Years' War. The protagonist of this novel, who was supposed to embody stereotypically German characteristics, is quite similar to the protagonist of ''Candide.''〔 These stereotypes, according to Voltaire biographer Alfred Owen Aldridge, include "extreme credulousness or sentimental simplicity", two of Candide's, and Simplicius's, defining qualities. Aldridge writes, "Since Voltaire admitted familiarity with fifteenth-century German authors who used a bold and buffoonish style, it is quite possible that he knew ''Simplicissimus'' as well."〔
A satirical and parodic precursor of ''Candide'', Jonathan Swift's ''Gulliver's Travels'' (1726) is one of ''Candide'''s closest literary relatives. This satire tells the story of "a gullible ingenue", Gulliver, who (like Candide) travels to several "remote nations" and is hardened by the many misfortunes which befall him. As evidenced by similarities between the two books, Voltaire probably drew upon ''Gulliver's Travels'' for inspiration while writing ''Candide''.〔Havens (1973), pp. 844–845〕 Other probable sources of inspiration for ''Candide'' are ''Télémaque'' (1699) by François Fénelon and ''Cosmopolite'' (1753) by Louis-Charles Fougeret de Monbron. ''Candide'''s parody of the ''bildungsroman'' is probably based on ''Télémaque'', which includes the prototypical parody of the sagacious tutor on whom Pangloss may have been partly based. Likewise, Monbron's protagonist undergoes a disillusioning series of travels similar to those of Candide.〔〔Wade (1959b), p. 296〕〔Broome (1960), p. 510〕
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