Voltaire's Candide, or Optimism

Pronunciation Guide:

Candide =  can-deed

Cunégonde (French) = kew - nay - gohnd

        Kunigunde (German) = coon-ee-gun-dah

Historical context:

-        Enlightenment

-        Seven Years War between France and England (5—fn. 2)

-        3 years after Lisbon earthquake (30-40k dead)

-        Voltaire = Shakespeare of France (rival also: Moliere)

-        Went to Frederick the Great’s (King of Prussia, fancied himself a philosopher king) court for a while too

-        Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz: cause and effect reasoning supports his theory of necessity

-        Book similar in satire and genre to Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels

 
Other Links:

• Check out the New York Public Library's online exhibition on Candide

• Yann Martel (author of Life of Pi) includes Candide on his book list for Canadian PM Stephen Harper.

• Excerpt from Stephen Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (2011)
  

W. Nielsen, Feb. 6 2012