Candide, or Optimism

Book summary

Raised in a Westphalian castle, Candide learns from his tutor Pangloss that all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds. Driven out for kissing Cunégonde, he passes through war, the Inquisition, the Lisbon earthquake and the colonies of the Americas. Each disaster tests the lesson of optimism he keeps repeating without quite believing it. The tale explores evil, Providence, slavery and the vanity of systems that claim to explain everything. Voltaire moves forward in very short chapters, where irony does the work of argument.