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Loading... Candide (Dover Thrift Editions)by Voltaire
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. One of my favorite books ever! There are countless reviews of this masterpiece, so I will not bore you with another, JUST READ IT! (  )1   spywall | Nov 14, 2009 |  This is quite the silly book. It comes to more or less the same conclusions about happiness as Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha, if a touch more (okay, a lot more) cynically. That is, that life is best when one has a purpose, a way to spend their time. The plot in a nutshell: Candide desperately tries to retain his optimism as endless and increasingly unlikely calamities befall him and his cohorts. There are funny bits, there are disturbing bits, and there are bits that make you go "huh?" but all in all it's a decent read. And short enough that it isn't a chore to get through. (  )1 melydia | Oct 28, 2009 | Biting satire. Quick read. Some great passages. Happy to have read it, but I won't rave about it. ( )1 Griff | Oct 24, 2009 | Wish I knew what everyone sees in this one. I've known a few people who have claimed this as one of their favorite works, and to me, anyway, this book appears so slight when compared with other classical works. But then, allegory was never my favorite form of literature. I can completely understand Balzac, or Zola, or Flaubert. They were amazing writers, and you can get something new out of them with each reading, I think, depending upon what stage you are at in your own life. But it seems like there is a trend in French literature - the spare and esoteric work, the one that says, "this may not look like much, but it has Layers." I'm thinking especially of The Little Prince, this work, and possibly all of Camus. It may be very worthy. I'm sure the fault is mine here. But I just don't get it. ( )1 annie1378 | Oct 20, 2009 | A very good translation of a good book. And a hilarious cover to boot. If you haven't read this yet, I'm ashamed of you. ( )1 lmichet | Oct 14, 2009 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com (ISBN 0140440046, Paperback)Political satire doesn't age well, but occasionally a diatribe contains enough art and universal mirth to survive long after its timeliness has passed. Candide is such a book. Penned by that Renaissance man of the Enlightenment, Voltaire, Candide is steeped in the political and philosophical controversies of the 1750s. But for the general reader, the novel's driving principle is clear enough: the idea (endemic in Voltaire's day) that we live in the best of all possible worlds, and apparent folly, misery and strife are actually harbingers of a greater good we cannot perceive, is hogwash.Telling the tale of the good-natured but star-crossed Candide (think Mr. Magoo armed with deadly force), as he travels the world struggling to be reunited with his love, Lady Cunegonde, the novel smashes such ill-conceived optimism to splinters. Candide's tutor, Dr. Pangloss, is steadfast in his philosophical good cheer, in the face of more and more fantastic misfortune; Candide's other companions always supply good sense in the nick of time. Still, as he demolishes optimism, Voltaire pays tribute to human resilience, and in doing so gives the book a pleasant indomitability common to farce. Says one character, a princess turned one-buttocked hag by unkind Fate: "I have wanted to kill myself a hundred times, but somehow I am still in love with life. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of our most melancholy propensities; for is there anything more stupid than to be eager to go on carrying a burden which one would gladly throw away, to loathe one's very being and yet to hold it fast, to fondle the snake that devours us until it has eaten our hearts away?"--Michael Gerber (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:18 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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