Candide and Philosophy

Hey guys, Adventure Van here with a report about Candide, the satirical and philosophical novel written by the infamous Voltaire. Candide is a tale written about the titular character, Candide, and how he moves through a few extremely bad years and a criticism of karma, religion, optimism, and philosophy as a whole. It is an interesting read, which has a very hard time letting a character stay dead for any length of time, but is still somewhat fun as a satire and certainly an interesting peak into the views of Voltaire.

Candide, an illegitimate nephew in a baron's castle, has to survive, with the help of his optimistic philosophy passed on from the scholar Pangloss who raised him, a host of horrors. He gets banished for kissing the Duke's daughter, Cunégonde, and must make it through the outside world. Along the way, only one good religious abbot exists who helps Candide, but he ends up dying after also taking Pangloss under his wing. Some of the obstacles before Candide include the inquisition, false heirs, scamming merchants, and constant traveling and slavery. At times, however, the events takes a step into the background for frequent discussions between the characters about philosophy, until the climax where Candide finally marries Cunégonde and the entire cast ends up farming so much that they run out of time to philosophize, which is treated as a good thing.

As a whole, the tone is much stronger than the story. Voltaire is very forefront in his views on philosophy, the church, wealth, and unreasonable optimism, and states them using his characters as mouthpieces often. It's preachy, but it is not as horrid as other obvious political analogies. The ironic and satirical writing gives a tongue in cheek feel that makes it not grating to read, as if Voltaire himself isn't taking his points all that seriously either. All in all, it's not the worst book written by a someone with a point to make, and it's worth the read if you're interested in either Voltaire or simply an excellent philosophical satire. Adventure Van, out.