“If this is the best of all possible worlds, then what must the others be like?”
Young Candide is tossed on a hilarious tide of misfortune, experiencing the full horror and injustice of this “best of all possible worlds” – the Old and the New – before finally accepting that his old philosophy tutor Dr Pangloss has got it all wrong. There are no grounds for his daft theory of Optimism.
Yet life goes on. We must cultivate our garden, for there is certainly room for improvement. Candide is the most famous of Voltaire’s “philosophical tales”, in which he combined witty improbabilities with the sanest of good sense.
First published in 1759, it was an instant bestseller and has come to be regarded as one of the key texts of the Enlightenment.
In the audio guide below, Professor Roger Pearson of The Queen’s College, Oxford, who translated Candide and Other Stories for Oxford World’s Classics, introduces the book and its author. Click on the links to listen to the audio clips.
Becoming Voltaire
- Voltaire (1694-1778), one of the intellectual giants of the eighteenth century, was born François-Marie Arouet, the son of a prosperous Parisian lawyer. In his own day, his celebrity rested mainly on the tragedies and comedies he wrote for the theatre. Click here to listen to Roger Pearson describe how the young playwright became the free-thinking philosophe by the time he was middle aged. [4:38]
- Click here to hear about Voltaire’s later years: his period of exile in Switzerland and his triumphant return to Paris at the end of his long life. [3:07]
- Voltaire waged a lifelong campaign against lazy thinking in all its manifestations. Blind adherence to religious dogma in particular incurred his wrath. Find out more about his intellectual position by clicking here. [4:27]
Candide and the weapon of humour
- All the stories in this volume belong to the genre of “philosophical tales”. In this clip, Roger Pearson explains what the philosophical tale is and how Voltaire used it to puncture the dogmatism of his opponents. Click here to listen. [2:40]
- Voltaire once said: “I have only ever addressed one prayer to God and it is very short: ‘Please God, make all our enemies ridiculous.’ God has granted my wish.” As Roger Pearson says in this clip,”the whole of Candide reads like a comic strip, a kind of eighteenth-century Asterix”. Click here for more on Candide. [5:35]
- The other stories in this selection have been chosen because they are the funniest that Voltaire wrote. Roger Pearson briefly introduces them here . [5:11]
- Why is translating Voltaire like the challenge of telling a good joke? Click here to find out. [1:43]