Voltaire's 1759 philosophical satire — following the naive Candide through disasters and absurdities as he tests and abandons Leibnizian optimism — the definitive Enlightenment satirical novella and the most widely read 18th-century French prose work.
Creates the philosophical satirical novella — Candide's method (testing Leibniz's 'best of all possible worlds' optimism through extreme scenarios of earthquake, war, slavery, and inquisition) is the most effective vehicle for philosophical satire; its final line ('We must cultivate our garden') is the most compressed pragmatic wisdom in Western literature.
No recorded contemporaries.
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