Gastjäle's review of Candide & Other Works (original) (raw)

Goodreads Choice Awards 2024 Opening Round

Discover new books on Goodreads

Meet your next favorite book

Gastjäle's Reviews > Candide & Other Works

Candide & Other Works by Voltaire

Candide & Other Works
by

58816143

3.5 / 5.0

Candide and Ingénu were great, comico-philosophical commentaries on the state of affairs of the 18th century. The humour could be really boisterous and promiscuous, but also clever and thought-provoking. The philosophical side of things was pretty limited, for Voltaire was really keen on attacking just a maxim or two, namely "All is for the best" – however, the way he treated the topic was really fair: a fatalistic attitude towards the great chain of causes and effects will hardly be of use to anyone when people are in dire need of help, nor is it of any consolation to those who suffer the most. It can be also very hypocritical for people to tell others not to simplify the designs of the Supreme Being, who works in mysterious ways, while at the same time these prophets are willing to interpret things while leaning heavily towards the confirmation bias. Our eminent philosopher, Pangloss, for instance likes to point out that all the suffering Candide went through was for the better, because he got to dig in his garden at the very end. I mean, that's both droll and scathing!

Naturally, this way of thinking has other great drawbacks. Why not continue looting and pillaging? Why not simply finish oneself off? Why not simply stay put and starve to death? All is for the best, after all, and there's no Free Will.

Voltaire also criticised the strict class distinctions and customs of his age, but these points were of less interest due to them being so antiquated. Nor was his defence for love that should not be trammeled by birthrights as strong as it should be, since the female representatives of the amorous designs were usually simply commended for their looks.

All in all, Voltaire was a humane, humorous yet cynical philosopher, who, based on these stories, wanted philosophy to be of intellectual consolation and practical use. He also wanted to free it from the chains of the chosen few, who clothe the fine profession with mystique and jargon while closing their eyes from what's actually going on around them. He was also an advocate of healthy diversions: a spell of graft every now and then can ward off needless thoughts. While the latter is an attitude which has now been adopted by many people who'd love to consign philosophy to a dusty bin and shit on it, it's a nice, sensible point of view which acknowledges that it's not only intellectual matter which enables us to see things more clearly.

Now, as for Zadig, Nanine, the Lisbon poem and the spin-off of Candide, I have less approbative views.

The first of these was kind of foreshadowing the views Voltaire would expound on Candide and Ingénu, but the message was not quite clear. An angel himself descended on Earth to hold forth about the aforementioned maxim, which kind of suggests that Voltaire was all for the idea – it simply wasn't practical, that's all. Then again, Zadig does seem to hesitate even after he received this disquisition from the angel, so... one never knows. The prelude to the Lisbon poem seems to corroborate this idea, but the stories seem to be more damning towards the idea than what Voltaire purports to think himself... It's difficult to say. In any case, since Voltaire has a very episodic way of writing, his stories get really boring if they don't have enough meat in them. Zadig had but strips of flesh around the bones, and the end suggested that one should actually think that earthly rewards could be constituted to be a reward for hardships, which is simply silly in the given context. (I might've been blinded by Voltaire's subtle irony, but I'm still giving myself the benefit of the doubt.)

Nanine was as useless as they come. A comedy bereft of comic qualities which simply preaches the importance of the love based on feeling, not on status and riches. We've all heard that before. The Lisbon poem was pretty effective in places, yet the message loses some of its poignancy if one has already read great pieces like Candide.

Finally, the spin-off – not written by Voltaire – was funny, imaginative and even more technical in terms of philosophy than Voltaire's own works, yet it lacked the substance and purpose of the original work. Whereas Voltaire wanted to achieve something with his humour, this spin-off is simply trying to entertain people by creating exaggerated situations and relying even more on fridge logic than Voltaire himself did. The message is more or less the same, which begs the question: why write such things in the first place, because they were already sufficiently handled by V. himself? Oh well, at least it was more preposterous, and hence earned bigger laughs from me.

So yeah, obviously I was not too moved by this compilation. This can also be seen from the haphazard way I've written my review – that's always a tell-tale sign. But still, I do respect Voltaire for his wit and humour, even moreso than for his philosophical stances and social trail-blazing. Wigs off for the great, phlegmatic smirker!

Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read_Candide & Other Works_.

Sign In »

Reading Progress

April 11, 2019 –Started Reading

April 15, 2019 –Finished Reading

Comments

No comments have been added yet.

Add a reference:

Search for a book to add a reference

add: link cover

Welcome back. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account.

Login animation