Voltaire's "Candide"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, in "Candide", Voltaire, using satirical tools of blunt exaggeration combined with rapier wit, through the innocent eyes of his hapless title character, travels the world after having been turned unjustly out of his stately Westphalian home, encountering one catastrophe after another. The author points out that one of Voltaire's favorite comical devices is to restore the character to life by a series of highly detailed, yet utterly nonsensical circumstances, similar to modern-day TV soap operas. The paper states that Voltaire seems to conclude that honest work may be a cure for the wild ambition, deadly intrigues and nonsensical religious posturing of the day.

From the Paper:

"Voltaire, of course, leaves it to the reader to decipher the comical (and mind-boggling) backwardness of the worldview of this simpleton sage. Then, some time after the castle has been ravaged and they have all been forced to flee, Candide encounters Pangloss, his health obviously broken and pathetic. Pangloss, recalling for Candide's benefit "Pacquette, that pretty wench who waited on our noble baroness" when they were all back at the castle together, explains his condition in considerable - and bawdy."

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• Book Review # 73744 : "Voltaire's "Candide"

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