Candide

The bad news is that I have once again neglected to read longer books already in my backlog in order to acquire and read a short classic. The good news is that I really enjoyed this one. To understand what makes Voltaire's 1759 satire so great, you must first take a crash course in the prevailing doctrine of philosophy in Europe at the time: optimism. Basically, in Voltaire's day, the "great minds" of Europe, in an attempt to explain all of the evil and sadness in the world, simply said that everything happens for the best and that we are living in the best of all possible worlds. For example, if an earthquake killed thousands of people, the optimists would find the silver lining and point out that masons would now grow rich rebuilding the city, the bodies of the victims would now provide great nutrients for the soil, and heirs of the victims would inherit estates of their own. The general gist of the period was, "put your own sufferings aside and realize that in the bigger picture they are a necessary means to a greater good." Such optimistic and selfless ideologies may seem positive at first glance, but Voltaire saw them for what they really were: indifference to tragedy and an unwillingness to try to prevent or assuage it. When everyone walks around with a "shit happens; so what?" mentality, suffering goes largely ignored and unnoticed. So Voltaire, a great satirist, took up his pen and got to work writing Candide, the story of a man who endures and witnesses unspeakable tragedy and suffering. Governments and religious parties alike are targeted numerous times by Voltaire as he exposes some of their various inhumane practices with the most indifferent and "optimistic" of tones. The result is a giant mockery of pretty much everything that 18th century Europe had to offer - including the traditional "romantic adventure" genre for storytelling. I was pleasantly surprised by how well a book from 250 years ago held up today. The dark humor seemed ageless and I was able to find in Voltaire's writing shades of both his own contemporaries, like Jonathan Swift, but also 20th century satirists such as Vonnegut and Heller. The whole thing made for an extremely fast-paced and adventure-packed read that was intentionally over-the-top in its epic scope and yet still brief enough to finish in two hours. While you could extract many typical one line morals from different points in the story - "be careful what you wish for;" "money can't buy happiness;" "a fool and his money are soon pardoned" - the overwhelming message seems to be unique to Voltaire's era: "this is not the best of all possible worlds and not everything happens for the best." Simple (and obvious), sure, but still extremely controversial in its own time. This novella is for the pessimist and realist in everyone. I totally recommend it.