book of books - Candide

Voltaire is one of those names that conjures up all sorts of images. A favourite of Catherine the Great and seen as a philosopher that was so independently minded that he was brave enough to upset monarchs across Europe you come to his work with some trepidation.

But Candide could not be further from what you expected. Literature can throw up some real surprises and this matched Homer’s Odyssey in terms of being more enjoyable than expected. Maybe I’m not reading it in the right way and it should be a lot harder and no doubt students of literature pore over every word but for the casual reader this is easily digestible and has a point that is fairly easy to grasp.

Plot summary
Candide is a young man that has been influenced by his mentor Pangloss who is a philosopher that believes in optimism. Voltaire’s definition of which is explained by Candide to a fellow traveller: “'What is optimism?' asked Cacambo.
'It's the passion for maintaining that all is right when all goes wrong with us,' replied Candide." Things certainly go wrong for Candide who starts working for a Baron and ends up getting his first piece of bad fortune after being sacked for falling in love with the Baron’s daughter Cunegonde. Candide stays faithful to the idea that they will be together but has to go through a series of escapades including being forced into a war, tortured by the inquisition, having the wealth given to him by the King of Eldorado stolen and then finally when he does meet Cunegonde she is ugly and has a temperament that he is not too keen on. But he remains optimistic throughout even after picking up a counterbalance to Pangloss in the form of the pessimist Martin.

Is it well written?
At the time of its publication it presumably had them rolling in the aisles slightly more than it does today because the style does seem dated. There is also a strong feeling that Voltaire is making numerous political points at the nobility and religious structures of various countries, which again without further study are lost on the modern reader. But in terms of the style it has a lively pace, moves the narrative on and has a limited cast that makes it fairly easy to navigate through what is a constantly changing background.

Should it be read?
One consequence of reading it is that you get an insight into a different style of writing, something not just satirical but provocative. Is Candide someone to be admired for remaining optimistic and positive in the face of such bad fortune or is he a fool? Likewise is Pangloss right or is Martin’s view the one you subscribe to? It is because of the pertinence of those questions to the modern reader that it deserves to be read. Most of the time I see the glass half empty so Martin’s cynical view of the world is closer to my own but just seeing an alternative does make you think about being more like Candide and Pangloss.

Summary
Remaining optimistic in the face of numerous twists off bad fortune Candide does end up with the love of his life even though she is ugly and he is broke

Version read – Penguin paperback

Lunchtime read: Candide

The book comes to an end with plenty of lessons for those who are searching for a definition of optimism. It would not be too difficult to update this with a modern version with more humour and a slightly more detailed exploration into the human condition with its varied displays of greed and deceit.

I’ll make a few more comments on that in a review that will follow in a couple of days.

Highlights from chapters

* While Candide and his companion Martin sit in Venice and wait for news he has a meal with six former kings and is reunited with his servant from the Eldorado expedition who tells him that his love is in Constantinople

* Candide heads for the Turkish city with Martin and his servant, who he has paid out of slavery, but is worried that Cunegonde has become very ugly because of her labours washing dishes down by the sea

* On the slave ship they are being rowed across Constantinople in Candide is amazed to come across Pangloss and Cunegonde’s brother both of which he thought were dead but both were brought back to help by kind medical helpers

* Once Candide meets Cunegonde sure enough she is ugly and he wishes in a way he could escape marriage but he sticks to his word and has to send her brother packing back to the slave ship to stop his objections

* In the end the little groups of philosophers and friends of Candide settle on a farm and only become happy when they all share the work in the gardens – an ending that ends more on a socialism note than you might have expected

A review will follow soon…

Lunchtime read: Candide

The search for his love is restarted as Candide escapes from France, which he believes is full of barbarians but next stop is England and it is no surprise that he finds the people there even worse.

Highlights from chapters XXIII to XXV

* Landing in England Candide is witness to an execution of an admiral who is shot for failing to kill enough of his men in a battle against the French enemy and he starts to plan his escape asking a Dutch captain to take him to Venice

* Once in Venice he looks for his old servant and the love of his life but the weeks pass by and he fails to find either and starts to depair and as result talks more to his companion Martin about happiness

* Candide bets that a woman and a monk arm in arm are happy but when they get them back to his house for a dinner it turns out they are both deeply unhappy and have tragic lives

* Next Candide is invited to go and see someone who believes themselves to be so superior to everything that he takes a peverse pleasure in disliking everythinng including great literature

The final chunk comes tomorrow...

Lunchtime read: Candide

Although this is not a difficult book to read it has been a real challenge this week to find the time to squeeze it in and so it will have to be read over the weekend to get it completed in time for Monday when I fancy starting something else.

Highlights from chapters XXI and XXII

* Candide heads back to Europe and lands in France and although he expresses no interest in visiting the French capital he notices that everyone else is going that way so heads for the capital

* Once there he starts to drift from his resolution to get to Venice as quickly as he can to meet up with the object of his affection Cunegonde and after getting over a bout of illness and visiting the theatre he starts to fall under the spell of the actresses

* He tries to ingratiate himself into the social world inhabited by the actresses and after losing a huge amount of money in cards Candide seems to have their attention but is always likely to attract the wrong sort of attention with his wealth

* Sure enough a priest hearing of his love for Cunegonde tricks him into believing she is in a hotel on her way to find him in Paris and once Candide arrives he is arrested and has to use more diamonds to pay for his release

More tomorrow…

Lunchtime read: Candide

Those people who like dictionary definitions get one from Voltaire on optimism with Candide having to explain it to a man with only one leg and arm.

"'What is optimism?' asked Cacambo.
'It's the passion for maintaining that all is right when all goes wrong with us,' replied Candide."

Highlights from chapters XVIII to XX

* Having decided to leave Eldorado the King gives his consent and loads up Candide and his servant with gems and wealth which should make them rich when they return to the normal world

* They travel until finding a Dutch town and Candide sends his servant to entice Lady Cunegonde to come back while he tries to get passage to Venice but he is so willing to pay over the odds the Dutch captain rumbles he has money and steals his luggage

* Trying for a second time on board a French boat Candide pays for a companion and chooses an old scholar - Martin - who holds a different view from his own believing the world is essentially evil

* As if tyo prove his point they sail past a battle at sea and the same captain who conned Candide is sunk and revenge for the theft Martin suggests is complete

More tomorrow...

Lunchtime read: Candide

A colleague at work casually walked past my desk and picked up Candide and asked what it was like. Having been told it was meant to be a witty read he asked if it was like Oscar Wilde: “You know meant to be funny but unable to raise a single laugh”. He has a point that might be applied here but all the time you read it you have to remember this was all a long time ago and what was thought of as funny then might not be as funny now.

Highlights between chapters XV to XVII

* Having met up with Cunegonde’s brother Candide then commits his third murder after reacting to a slap in the face and an insult about his suitability for marriage with Lady Cunegonde

* He escapes but is caught in the jungle after he shoots two monkeys that happened to be the lovers of two local women (that is disturbing if not amusing) and then they are only saved from being eaten by convincing them they have killed a friar one of the villagers enemies

* Following that escape they stumble on and drift down the river before arriving at Eldorado a land where gold and gems litter the roads and wealth abounds everywhere and the people are very friendly to Candide

More hilarity tomorrow…

Lunchtime read: Candide

The optimistic Candide finds life testing to his limit as he finds his love and then is forced to part from her in order to save his own skin. You sense when you are reading this that admirers like Catherine the Great must have found the style amusing and the quips against authority and religion refreshingly challenging.

Highlights from chapters XI – XIV
* As the fugitives travel to South America Cunegonde’s maid tells her life story – that she was the daughter of the pope and had a life of luxury before losing her position and being forced into servitude

* She tells of her journey to become a maid and warns Cunegonde that position can never be taken for granted and there are people that are worse off than her

* Once landed in Buenos Aires the governor takes a liking to Cunegode and muscles in on her as Candide is forced to flee from authorities travelling to track down the murderer of the Grand Inquisitor

* He travels onto a town run by Spanish friars and is surprised to discover that Cunegode’s brother has taken refuge in the town and has survived the war that Candide assumed he had been killed in

More tomorrow…

Lunchtime read: Candide

Although the wit here might have aged a bit there are still some funny lines and a strange sense that Candide’s optimism is going to be stretched to the absolute limit along with his belief that things happen for a reason.

Using the facts of the Lisbon earthquake that killed 50,000 people, that the introduction points out had already been used by Voltaire for satirical purposes with some outcry, it appears again but this time it is used as an example by the philosopher Pangloss that things happen for a reason and man cannot stop his destiny. A theory he ends up finding works against you as well as in your favour.

Highlights from chapters V to X

* Having travelled to Lisbon in a terrible storm that kills all of the crew and passengers apart from Candide, his mentor Pangloss and a sailor they arrive in Lisbon just in time for a devastating earthquake that kills tens of thousands

* In an unguarded conversation Pangloss happens to tell the head of the inquisition that these things happen for a reason and he does not believe in mortal sin – a move that results in him being hanged and Candide being flogged for being an approving observer

* But the flogging at least provides a chance for him to be reunited with his love Cunegonde who explains that after being raped and orphaned by soldiers she is now living at the joint expense of a wealthy Jew and the head of the inquisition

* The Jew arrives first and is killed by Candide and then the head of the inquisition is also run through with the young man’s sword and the lovers plus the girl’s old maid run off and head for a life in the new world

More tomorrow…

Lunchtime read: Candide

This is the only reading I am going to be able to post about today as I have had a rare day off work and headed down to the West Country to spend some time with family. Having finished the Dreiser I picked this up because of its slimline nature plus having never read anything by Voltaire it was another goal to get this ticked off.

The first response to the story and the style is one of plesant surprise because you assume, completely wrongly in my case, that this is going to be a heavy intellectual tome. But is has humour, an incredibly brisk pace and a way of engaging you from the first couple of pages.

Highlights from chapters I - IV

* Candide is learning to be a tutor in the employ of a Baron but manages to lose his position after getting entangled with the Baron's daughter and then he leaves and ends up falling into an army that is about to go to war

* Candide seems to have no idea what is going on most of the time and during the battle manages to hide then walk off the battlefield in the direction of Holland where he believes he will find sanctuary

* He meets his old tutor who tells him that the Baron's daughter is dead and that the old world he knew has been destroyed forever and then sets off on a voyage with his old tutor and their kind hearted benefactor

Might be able to read some more tomorrow...