Candide, or Optimism

Regular price €17.50
Quantity:
In stock with our UK publisher. 14-28 days
Delivery/Collection within 10-20 working days
14 days return policy Shipping & Delivery
A01=Francois Voltaire
adventure book
adventure books
adventure books for adults
Author_Francois Voltaire
best books for men
best books of all time
books fiction
candide or optimism
Category=FBC
classic
enlightenment
eq_bestseller
eq_classics
eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
fiction
fiction books
french literature
literary fiction
michael wood
micromegas
philosophy
satire
voltaire

Product details

  • ISBN 9780140455106
  • Weight: 159g
  • Dimensions: 129 x 198mm
  • Publication Date: 25 May 2006
  • Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Paperback
Secure checkout Fast Shipping Easy returns

'The prince of philosophical novels' John Updike

In Candide, Voltaire threw down an audacious challenge to the philosophical views of the Enlightenment to create one of the most glorious satires of the eighteenth century. His eponymous hero is an innocent young man whose tutor, Pangloss, has instilled in him the belief that 'all is for the best'. But when his love for the Baron's rosy-cheeked daughter is discovered, Candide is cast out to make his own fortune. As he and his various companions roam over the world, an outrageous series of disasters - earthquakes, syphilis, the Inquisition - sorely test the young hero's optimism, holding a mirror up to all fanatics, zealots and moral reformers of humankind.

Translated and Edited by Theo Cuffe with an Introduction by Michael Wood

Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer, satirist, the embodiment of the 18th-century Enlightenment. Among his best-known works is the satirical short story CANDIDE (1759).


Michael Wood (introducer) is currently Straut Professor of English at Princeton. His books include Stendhal, America in the Movies, The Magician's Doubts, Franz Kafka, and The Road to Delphi. Theo Cuffe (translator) has also translated a selection of Voltaire's short stories for Penguin, Micromégas and Other Short Fictions.

More from this author