Bibliographic Information

Candide, or, Optimism

Voltaire ; translated by John Butt

(Penguin classics)

Penguin, 1947

  • : hc

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Description and Table of Contents

Description

All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds It was the indifferent shrug and callous inertia that this optimism concealed which so angered Voltaire, who found the all for the best approach a patently inadequate response to suffering, to natural disasters, not to mention the questions of illness and man-made war. Moreover, as the rebel whose satiric genius had earned him not only international acclaim, but two stays in the Bastille, flogging, and exile, Voltaire knew personally what suffering entailed. In Candide he whisks his young hero and friends through a ludicrous variety of tortures, tragedies, and a reversal of fortune, in the company of Pangloss, a metaphysico-theologo-comolo-nigologist of unflinching optimism. The result is one of the glories of eighteenth-century satire. For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

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Details

  • NCID
    BA18616930
  • ISBN
    • 0140440046
    • 0613642597
  • Country Code
    uk
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Original Language Code
    fre
  • Place of Publication
    Harmondsworth
  • Pages/Volumes
    144 p.
  • Size
    18 cm
  • Parent Bibliography ID
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