V is for Voltaire. Voltaire's masterpiece belongs in the hands of every reader pondering our assumptions about human behavior and our place in the world. Voltaire tells of the ludicrous adventures and reversals of fortune of the naive Candide, who doggedly believes that "all is for the best" even when faced with injustice, suffering, and despair. A satirical challenge to the empty optimism prevalent in Voltaire's eighteenth-century society is both...

Collection of Voltaire's works.

Contains modern translations of five stories by the eighteenth-century French author, including the title selection about a simple, optimistic man whose travels take him from one disaster to another; and includes a critical introduction and a chronology.

In this philosophical fantasy, naive Candide sees and suffers such misfortune that he ultimately rejects the philosophy of his tutor Doctor Pangloss, who claims that "all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds." Candide and his companions--Pangloss, his beloved Cunegonde, and his servant Cacambo--display an instinct for survival that provides them hope in an otherwise somber setting. When they all retire together to a simple life on a...

Collection of stories written by the eighteenth-century French satirist, featuring "Candide," the tale of a young man who embarks on a life of adventure after being expelled from the castle of Thunder-ten-tronckh because of his affection for the baron's daughter.