Candide, or Optimism by Voltaire
166 pages
Published 1759
Read July 11
Rating: ★★★★ out of 5
I
love cynical, bleakly funny works written in the faux-naive voice of
Enlightenment satire. Not that I've read many, mind you, but Gulliver's Travels -- once I was old enough to seek out and somewhat digest the unexpurgated version -- was an early favorite, and Candide turns out to be pretty darn good too. At least, the "actual" Candide
was satisfyingly acerbic. My edition also had a "Part II," which
according to Wikipedia is variously attributed to Thorel de
Campigneulles or Henri Joseph Du Laurens. That extra bit of fan-fiction,
the authenticity of which is never questioned in my copy, was
noticeably inferior, blunting the edge of Voltaire's nasty hilarity and
introducing an anti-Enlightenment message in the person of
Zenoida, which even as I was reading it felt at odds with Voltaire's
attitude in "Part I." I can't entirely despise the non-canon fan
service, as the chapter "Candide Meditates Suicide" was one of the
funniest portions of the entire book, but on the whole "Part II" was
still an odd interlude that diminished the overall effect of the
novella.
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