Skip to main content

Candide by Voltaire

Candide by Voltaire 

Rating : 4/5 

Genres : Satire, Classics, Novella 

This is a really short book. But it covers huge ground - i mean literally! The main character in the story, Candide, walks/treads all over multiple continents and lands facing mishap after mishap with a singular pursuit in mind - to reach and unite his lover. It is a satire on the philosophy that says 'everything happens for the best'. The narrative is outright hilarious at places even where one is supposed to be moved to compassion and tears at the bad luck that strikes the main characters in the play. It goes on in a totally un-serious vein where we see people dead in earlier chapters springing back to life in the later ones. 🤣🤣

Candide gets thrown out of his kingdom because he has fallen in love with the king's daughter. He had a teacher who drilled into him the philosophy that everything that happens is for the best and as life takes him through different twists and turns throwing him into disasters and misfortunes, Candide thrives on this philosophy. Even when all hope is lost for his fellow companions, his positive attitude eventually makes him attain his goals..though they are very different from what he has expected. Like he fell in love and wanted to marry a fair princess but she becomes an ugly servant unsavory to the eyes towards the end where they get married. But still,  everything happens for the best right?! Well.. Who knows if marrying this un-beautiful serving woman has more benefits than marrying a beautiful princess? 

I finally didn't think that this work is meant to subterfuge/undermine the philosophy itself because each time Candide meets with disaster and perceives it to be a boon/good thing, an unexpected boon actually happens. 🙂 So even disasters were shown not to be so devastating after all. So is Voltaire against the philosophy or neutral towards it? I found it hard to make a judgment on this front. But do read this totally for the hilarity,the wittiness and the sheer awesomeness of the character of Candide himself.😇 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough book review

The Thorn Birds  By Colleen McCullough  Rating 3.75/5 Genres : Australia, Vatican city, Cardinal, Romance, Generational fiction, Historical fiction  Bah. I dont know. I felt this is just an ok sort of book. The only aspect that stirred me and struck a chord with me is the all encompassing, soul level love between Maggie and Father Ralph de Bricassart. Everything else - no matter how juicy,emotional or dramatic just failed to make an impact. The story covers the lives of three generations of women of the Cleary/Armstrong family line - their cherished dreams and dashed hopes, their hurts and heartbreaks over unrequited, failed loves..their finally getting what they wanted but it not being fully enough.. well, it sounds and feels like a roller coaster.  And whats more..there is plenty of repeat in the events of their lives..what has happened to the mother, happens to the daughter and so on..  Coming to the story. Maggie Cleary is brought up with a ...

Book Review : The Perfect Couple by Elin Hilderbrand

 The Perfect Couple  By Elin Hildebrand  (Nantucket #3) Published Year : 2018 Page Count: 347 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre : Romance, Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Drama, Crime, 2024-read.  Rating : 4/5  The ending is such an anticlimax and a let down for me - it almost feels like being cheated. I got so high and invested in the narrative..I lost sleep for most of last night and was reading all day since I got up this morning. The character development is ooof .. the characters are filled with life, credulity and fly off the page into the reader's mind space. I loved the layout of the narrative. I loved the writing.  I would have liked if the mother of the family was a bit on the negative side as well. I mean, really, having Nicole Kidman play the role and making it all cute, nice and kind, compassionate is like wasting enormous talent. I picked this book because I saw an ad that there is a limited series coming up on Netflix ...

Book Review: Gideon The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

 Gideon the Ninth  By Tamsin Muir  Published Year: 2019 Page Count: 448 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre : Action, Fantasy, Magic, Necromancers, Adventure, Murder Mystery, Suspense, Lesbian, 2024-read.  Rating : 4.75/5 🙂🙂🙂🙂🌟 Wow. The twists!! And wow wow wow .. the lies!! The deceptions ! Its exotic and steamy! Unputdownable. Highly Addictive. Been wanting to read this for a while now! The paperbacks being so expensive, I settled in for a Kindle experience. I am not disappointed. The lack of smut - which I expected/anticipated when I heard its lesbian fantasy - is such a relief. The tone of the narrator is serious throughout. I had some laugh out loud moments once or twice but that's it. One of the best fantasy book series ever!  I think it is the prose and writing style that I had to read this book real slow so as not to miss anything out. There is action in this book , necromancer magic, fantastic games and there are murders to solve and lyc...