Elfira Yolanda S

Book No 1 Year 2010

This is the first book I finished reading in 2010. My manager at work recommend this French satire by Voltaire.

I downloaded the e-book at ManyBooks. The site was like a treasure cave to me. Most of the e-books there were from Project Guttenberg but more organized. The site also provides various file types that we could download.

The wikipedia article about this literature can be found here.

The Story Through My Glasses

Candide is the name of the main character. This is about his journey. In only 30 chapters, Candide goes through a lot. It begins when Candide is kicked out because he falls in love with the daughter of the Baron who owns the castle he lives in. He meets and parts and then meets again with a lot of people until in the end he finally gets together for good with Lady Cunegund, the very same daughter of the Baron.

I don’t think it’s a romantic story. It is a satire and as one, it targets religions and optimism. Well, the original title was Candide, ou l’Optimisme, or in English, Candide, or Optimism. I think Voltaire includes his views through many characters of the book. Most characters in the story have gone through bad situations and although there is one character who holds the value of optimism (“all things could not have been otherwise”, Pangloss says), in the end Candide answers “but let us cultivate our garden.” to Pangloss’ “all is for its best”.

And Other Things About Candide

At first, I read it without knowing that it’s a satire. It immediately reminds me of The Ladykillers movie. It’s funny and cynical at the same time. It is a satire.

In my opinion, early chapters of the book have richer ways of telling things. I felt the need to ask myself whether the story was like what I thought. Good for the readers, Voltaire always gave the answer on the following paragraph, at least implicitly. OK. Let me rephrase. The early chapters of the book tell things implicitly. Allow me to quote paragraphs from the first chapter:

One day when Miss Cunegund went to take a walk in a little neighboring wood which was called a park, she saw, through the bushes, the sage Doctor Pangloss giving a lecture in experimental philosophy to her mother’s chambermaid, a little brown wench, very pretty, and very tractable. As Miss Cunegund had a great disposition for the sciences, she observed with the utmost attention the experiments which were repeated before her eyes; she perfectly well understood the force of the doctor’s reasoning upon causes and effects. She retired greatly flurried, quite pensive and filled with the desire of knowledge, imagining that she might be a sufficing reason for young Candide, and he for her.

See?

This drifts into philosophical debate more and more in the later chapters. While I couldn’t finish reading Sophie’s world, Candide was so much easier to read because the philosophical content was packaged in so many and sometimes out of sense stories. There is two women whose lovers are monkeys. There are 6 dethroned kings have dinner together. There is a very rich and peaceful hidden country. Many more.

I don’t always approve the opinion but I think I will always enjoy satire in any forms and Candide is a marvelous piece.

All is for its best, but let us cultivate our garden.

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