Home » Candide, or The Optimist
In stock
Product Image

Candide, or The Optimist

Voltaire
€17.50
Quantity:
Delivery/Collection within 2-4 working days
Shipping & Delivery
A01=Voltaire
A24=Marine Ganofsky
adventure classics
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
age of enlightenment narrative
Author_Voltaire
automatic-update
book club selection
calamity tales
Category1=Fiction
Category=FBC
Category=FC
Category=FJH
Category=FUP
Category=FXP
Category=FYT
christianity
civil liberty
classic
clothbound
COP=United Kingdom
cultural commentary
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
disaster fiction
eighteenth century fiction
enlightenment
enlightenment philosophy
eq_bestseller
eq_classics
eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
european historical adventure
European journey narrative
french
french literature
gift
hardback
historical fiction
Language_English
lisbon earthquake
literary translation
literature lover present
luxury
moral philosophy
moral satire
optimism critique
PA=Available
philosopher
philosophical adventure story
philosophical fiction
political social satire
Price_€10 to €20
PS=Active
satire
seven years war
softlaunch
tragic comedy
translation
unabridged

Product details

  • ISBN 9781529021080
  • Weight: 128g
  • Dimensions: 99 x 157mm
  • Publication Date: 01 Oct 2020
  • Publisher: Pan Macmillan
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Hardback
  • Language: English
Secure checkout Fast Shipping Easy returns
Description

Candide, or the Optimist is Voltaire’s hilarious and deeply scathing satire on the Age of Enlightenment. This classic of French literature has been a bestseller for over two hundred years.

Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library, a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold-foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This classic of French literature features an introduction by Dr Marine Ganofsky.

Young nobleman Candide lives a sheltered and comfortable life under the tutorship of the ridiculous Dr Pangloss who espouses the prevailing 18th-century philosophy of Optimism. Following an indiscretion, Candide is cast out into the world which according to Pangloss is ‘the best of all possible worlds’. But this is not so, Candide and his companions encounter nothing but ludicrous calamities in their madcap travels around the world – war crimes, earthquakes, inquisitions and chain gangs – all based with horrible closeness on real events of the 18th century.
About Voltaire
Imprisoned in the Bastille at the age of twenty-three for a criminal libel against the Regent of France, François-Marie Arouet was freed in 1718 with a new name, Voltaire, and the completed manuscript of his first play, Oedipe, which became a huge hit on the Paris stage in the same year. For the rest of his long and dangerously eventful life, this cadaverous genius shone with uninterrupted brilliance as one of the most famous men in the world. Revered, and occasionally reviled, in the royal courts of Europe, his literary outpourings and fearless campaigning against the medieval injustices of church and state in the midst of the ‘Enlightenment’ did much to trigger the French Revolution and to formulate the present notions of democracy. But above all, Voltaire was an observer of the human condition, and his masterpiece Candide stands out as an astonishing testament to his unequalled insight into the way we were and probably always will be.

More from this author