Candide

Voltaire

A short novel — almost a philosophical tale — written by Voltaire in just a few days, according to legend, and published anonymously because its author knew perfectly well that the authorities would want to burn it. They were right. The story follows Candide, a naive young man raised in the castle of the Baron of Thunder-ten-Tronckh in Westphalia, under the tutelage of the philosopher Pangloss, who teaches him that we live in the best of all possible worlds and that everything that happens has a reason and a purpose. Candide believes this with all his soul — until the real world begins to prove him wrong, point by point, catastrophe by catastrophe.