59 Facts About Candide

Candide is characterized by its tone as well as by its erratic, fantastical, and fast-moving plot.

Today, Candide is considered as Voltaire's magnum opus and is often listed as part of the Western canon.

Candide makes use of the Lisbon earthquake in both Candide and his to argue this point, sarcastically describing the catastrophe as one of the most horrible disasters "in the best of all possible worlds".

Ira Wade, a noted expert on Voltaire and Candide, has analyzed which sources Voltaire might have referenced in learning of the event.

Candide had been made a member of the Academie Francaise in 1746.

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Candide was a deist, a strong proponent of religious freedom, and a critic of tyrannical governments.

Candide became part of his large, diverse body of philosophical, political, and artistic works expressing these views.

The evidence indicates strongly that Voltaire did not rush or improvise Candide, but worked on it over a significant period of time, possibly even a whole year.

Candide is mature and carefully developed, not impromptu, as the intentionally choppy plot and the aforementioned myth might suggest.

The La Valliere Manuscript, the most original and authentic of all surviving copies of Candide, was probably dictated by Voltaire to his secretary, Jean-Louis Wagniere, then edited directly.

The complicated science of calculating the relative publication dates of all of the versions of Candide is described at length in Wade's article "The First Edition of Candide: A Problem of Identification".

The greatest number of copies of Candide were published concurrently in Geneva by Cramer, in Amsterdam by Marc-Michel Rey, in London by Jean Nourse, and in Paris by Lambert.

Candide underwent one major revision after its initial publication, in addition to some minor ones.

In 1761, a version of Candide was published that included, along with several minor changes, a major addition by Voltaire to the twenty-second chapter, a section that had been thought weak by the Duke of Valliere.

The last edition of Candide authorised by Voltaire was the one included in Cramer's 1775 edition of his complete works, known as, in reference to the border or frame around each page.

Tale of Candide begins in the castle of the Baron Thunder-ten-Tronckh in Westphalia, home to the Baron's daughter, Lady Cunegonde; his bastard nephew, Candide; a tutor, Pangloss; a chambermaid, Paquette; and the rest of the Baron's family.

Candide is a young man of "the most unaffected simplicity", whose face is "the true index of his mind".

The sailor makes no move to help the drowning Jacques, and Candide is in a state of despair until Pangloss explains to him that Lisbon harbor was created in order for Jacques to drown.

The sailor leaves in order to loot the rubble while Candide, injured and begging for help, is lectured on the optimistic view of the situation by Pangloss.

Candide is flogged and sees Pangloss hanged, but another earthquake intervenes and he escapes.

Candide is approached by an old woman, who leads him to a house where Lady Cunegonde waits, alive.

Candide had been, but Cunegonde points out that people survive such things.

Candide's owners arrive, find her with another man, and Candide kills them both.

At a border post on the way to Paraguay, Cacambo and Candide speak to the commandant, who turns out to be Cunegonde's unnamed brother.

Candide explains that after his family was slaughtered, the Jesuits' preparation for his burial revived him, and he has since joined the order.

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When Candide proclaims he intends to marry Cunegonde, her brother attacks him, and Candide runs him through with his rapier.

Candide, seeking to protect the women, shoots and kills the monkeys, but is informed by Cacambo that the monkeys and women were probably lovers.

Cacambo and Candide are captured by Oreillons, or Orejones; members of the Inca nobility who widened the lobes of their ears, and are depicted here as the fictional inhabitants of the area.

Cacambo and Candide are released and travel for a month on foot and then down a river by canoe, living on fruits and berries.

Candide's remaining sheep are stolen, and Candide is fined heavily by a Dutch magistrate for petulance over the theft.

Candide remains an optimist at heart, since it is all he knows.

Candide is a prostitute, and is spending her time with a Theatine monk, Brother Giroflee.

Candide gives two thousand piastres to Paquette and one thousand to Brother Giroflee.

Candide buys their freedom and further passage at steep prices.

Cunegonde has indeed become hideously ugly, but Candide nevertheless buys their freedom and marries Cunegonde to spite her brother, who forbids Cunegonde from marrying anyone but a baron of the Empire.

Candide asks him why Man is made to suffer so, and what they all ought to do.

Candide ignores Pangloss's insistence that all turned out for the best by necessity, instead telling him "we must cultivate our garden".

Candide is confronted with horrible events described in painstaking detail so often that it becomes humorous.

Behind the playful facade of Candide which has amused so many, there lies very harsh criticism of contemporary European civilization which angered many others.

Simple example of the satire of Candide is seen in the treatment of the historic event witnessed by Candide and Martin in Portsmouth harbour.

Almost all of Candide is a discussion of various forms of evil: its characters rarely find even temporary respite.

The characters of Candide are unrealistic, two-dimensional, mechanical, and even marionette-like; they are simplistic and stereotypical.

Cyclically, the main characters of Candide conclude the novel in a garden of their own making, one which might represent celestial paradise.

Conclusion of the novel, in which Candide finally dismisses his tutor's optimism, leaves unresolved what philosophy the protagonist is to accept in its stead.

Wolper argues that Candide should be read with a minimum of speculation as to its meaning in Voltaire's personal life.

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Candide's article ushered in a new era of Voltaire studies, causing many scholars to look at the novel differently.

Martine Darmon Meyer argues that the "inside" view fails to see the satirical work in context, and that denying that Candide is primarily a mockery of optimism is a "very basic betrayal of the text".

Candide nevertheless succeeded in selling twenty thousand to thirty thousand copies by the end of the year in over twenty editions, making it a best seller.

In 1762, Candide was listed in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the Roman Catholic Church's list of prohibited books.

Bannings of Candide lasted into the twentieth century in the United States, where it has long been considered a seminal work of Western literature.

At least once, Candide was temporarily barred from entering America: in February 1929, a US customs official in Boston prevented a number of copies of the book, deemed "obscene", from reaching a Harvard University French class.

Candide is the most widely read of Voltaire's many works, and it is considered one of the great achievements of Western literature.

Candide has influenced modern writers of black humour such as Celine, Joseph Heller, John Barth, Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut, and Terry Southern.

Readers of Candide often compare it with certain works of the modern genre the Theatre of the Absurd.

Candide's world has many ridiculous and meaningless elements, but human beings are not totally deprived of the ability to make sense out of it.

The story continues in this sequel with Candide having new adventures in the Ottoman Empire, Persia, and Denmark.

Candide was adapted for the radio anthology program On Stage in 1953.

Operetta Candide was originally conceived by playwright Lillian Hellman, as a play with incidental music.

Candide first opened on Broadway as a musical on 1 December 1956.