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====Depictions of Jews====
====Depictions of Jews====
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===Race===

Mary Bellhouse, a professor of [[political science]], believed that Voltaire was a supporter of [[Polygenism|polygenesis]]. She argues that in ''Candide'', Voltaire portrays blacks as inferior to whites; but she states he does not attempt to prove this in the novella.<ref name=bellhouse756>{{cite journal
| last = Bellhouse
| first = Mary L.
| title = Candide Shoots the Monkey Lovers: Representing Black Men in Eighteenth-Century French Visual Culture
| journal = Political Theory
| volume = 34
| number = 6
| date = December 2006
| publisher = Sage Publications
| pages = 756
| id = DOI 10.1177/0090591706293020
}}</ref>
-->
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==Possible sequel==
{{See also|Candide, Part II}}
There is a much lesser known second part to the novel, in which Candide leaves the garden in Turkey. After many more adventures and his marriage to another woman, he settles in Denmark, and gains a high position in the royal court. Most scholars consider this second part of ''Candide'' to be [[apocryphal]].-->


== Allusions to actual history, geography and current science ==
== Allusions to actual history, geography and current science ==

Revision as of 03:52, 3 June 2007

For the Bernstein operetta based on the book, see Candide (operetta).
Candide, or Optimism
Frontispiece of the 1759 edition published by Sirène in Paris
This is the frontispiece of the 1759 edition published by Sirène in Paris. It reads, "Candide, or Optimism. Translated from the German of Dr. Ralph."
AuthorVoltaire
Original titleCandide, ou l'Optimisme
IllustratorJean-Michel Moreau le Jeune
LanguageFrench
GenreSatire, Picaresque novel[specify]
Publication date
January 15, 1759[1]
Publication placeFrance France

Candide, ou l'Optimisme, ("Candide, or Optimism") (1759) is a French language picaresque novel by the Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire. Voltaire never openly admitted to having written the controversial Candide; the work is signed with a pseudonym: "Monsieur le docteur Ralph", literally "Mister Doctor Ralph." The name and title "Candide" come from the French adjective "candide" /kãdid/ which means "ingenuous". [2]

Publication

Voltaire began writing Candide in 1757 or 1758 before and after moving into an estate in Ferney. He also wrote part of it while visiting the Elector-Palantine at Schwetzingen for three weeks in the summer of '58. He published Candide anonymously on January 15, 1759 in Geneva, Paris and Amsterdam; one month later, The Great Council of Geneva and administrators of Paris banned the work. Candide, nevertheless, succeeded in selling 20,000–30,000 copies by the end of the year in over twenty editions. The same year, it was translated once into Italian and thrice into English.[3]

In 1761, a version of Candide was published that included a revision of Voltaire's to the twefth chapter; this was a lengthy addition to the prose. The title of this edition was, "Candide, or Optimism. Translated from the German of Dr. Ralph. With the additions found in the Doctor's pocket when he died at Minden, in the Year of Grace 1759.[4]

Manuscripts

I. O. Wade, a noted expert on Voltaire and Candide, discovered in 1956 what is called the La Vallière Manuscript. This manuscript is believed to have been sent, chapter by chapter, by Voltaire himself to the Duke and Duchesse Vallière before the novella's publication. The manuscript was sold to the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal in the late 1700s.[5] Copies were also sent to Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour.[6] This discovery precipitated Wade's writing of Voltaire and Candide: A Study in the Fusion of History, Art and Philosophy, which was published in 1959.[7]

Characters in Candide

  • Candide, the protagonist
  • Cunégonde, Candide's cousin and love interest
  • Dr. Pangloss, Candide's tutor
  • Cacambo, Candide's practical valet, of a diverse ethic background. His name is derived from the Spanish word caca which means feces.[8]
  • Martin, Candide's travelling companion
  • Paquette, maid for Cunégonde's family
  • The Baron, Cunégonde's brother
  • The Old Woman, Cunégonde's maid
  • Jacques the Anabaptist, Candide's Dutch and Anabaptist benefactor for chapters III–V. Jacques, whose name is usually translated "Jacob" or "James", is usually considered the selfless person of the novel. He drowns after saving another man. [9]
  • Signor Pococurante (meaning "taking little care" in Italian), is a wealthy Venetian nobleman.

Plot and structure

Candide is organized into thirty chapters. As noted by Ervin Beck, the novella may be divided into three equal parts, each comprised of ten chapters:I–X take place in Europe; XI–XX are in America; and XXI–XXX are in Europe and Turkey. [10]

Summary

The tale begins in the castle of the Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh in Westphalia, home to the Baron's naïve bastard nephew Candide and to the Baron's daughter the Lady Cunégonde. The philosopher Dr. Pangloss, tutor of Candide and Cunégonde, teaches them that they live in "this best of all possible worlds" ("ce meilleur des mondes possibles") and "all is for the best" ("tout est au mieux"). Candide is kicked out of the castle after a sexual tryst with Cunegonde is discovered by the Baron and travels extensively, enduring a number of extremely unfortunate hardships, and witnessing worse.

Candide serves in the army, flogged, is almost burnt in an auto-da-fé, and experiences the historic and philosophically significant 1755 Lisbon earthquake. In Candide's absence, the baron's castle is ransacked by Bulgars and Cunégonde is raped and stabbed, along with the rest of her family. Candide is temporarily reunited with Cunégonde, though he thought her dead, but as soon as he is, he must kill two men and steal away to the New World. In Buenos Aires Candide's manservant Cacambo, appears, and leads him to Paraguay. At a border post on the way, Cacambo and Candide speak to the commandant, who turns out to be Cunégonde's brother. This brother explains how he was saved by Jesuits and came to be there.

When Candide proclaims he intends to marry Cunégonde, the brother is enraged and strikes Candide with the flat of his sword. Candide kills his attacker, steals his robe and flees with Cacambo. Notably, the two reach Eldorado, a geographically isolated utopia, where the streets are paved with precious stones; they for a month before parting with one hundred red pack sheep laden with riches. All but two of the sheep perish soon after this departure. In Surinam, the duo split up: Cacambo is to go to Buenos Aires to rescue Lady Cunégonde; he is to rendezvous with Candide in Venice.

In Bordeaux, on his way to Italy, Candide meets Martin, a Manichean from Amsterdam who accompanies him on the rest of his journey. Candide and Martin meet up with Cacambo in Venice after a long series of adventures in France and England. Cacambo explains that Cunégonde is in Constantinople, so thither they travel. En route, Cacambo relates Cunégonde's status: she is washing dishes for a Prince of Transylvania, and she's become ugly. On the way to rescue her, Candide finds Pangloss and Lady Cunégonde's brother the baron rowing the galley.

The baron and Pangloss relate their survival stories which, despite their horrors have not shaken Pangloss's optimism. According to the philosopher, "I still hold to my original opinions, because, after all, I'm a philosopher, and it wouldn't be proper for me to recant, since Leibniz cannot be wrong, and since preestablished harmony is the most beautiful thing in the world, along with the plenum and subtle matter." [11] The travelers arrive in Transylvania where they rejoin Cunégonde and the old woman. Candide nevertheless buys their freedom and marries Cunégonde to spite her brother. Paquette and Brother Giroflée, too, are reconciled with Candide on his farm, the only property left.

Returning to their farm, Candide, Pangloss and Martin meet a Turk whose philosophy is non-existent. He and his four children work a small farm to keep "free of three great evils: boredom, vice and poverty". Struck by this statement, Candide concludes that all he knows is that "we must cultivate our garden." Candide, Pangloss, Martin, Cunégonde, Paquette, the old woman and Brother Giroflée all set to work (on this "commendable plan"), each to one specific task. Candide ignores Pangloss's insistence that all turned out for the best by necessity, and is resolved only that "we must cultivate our garden".[12]

Major themes

See also: Panglossianism
See also: Dystopia

The novel satirizes naïve interpretations of Gottfried Leibniz's philosophy, such as that of the philosopher Pangloss, the tutor of the title character. Despite a series of misfortunes and misadventures, which include being present at the Lisbon Earthquake, Pangloss continually asserts that "Tout est pour le mieux dans le meilleur des mondes possibles" ("All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds"). The novel ends with Candide finally rejecting the optimism espoused by Pangloss, saying, "Il faut cultiver notre jardin" ("It is necessary to cultivate our garden").

Most of the characters in the novel go through much physical torture at the hands of a variety of people. However, Voltaire also presents a utopian society, when Candide and his servant Cacambo go to the city of El Dorado, a mythical place in South America, where there is so much gold that it is not seen as valuable. They leave it in order to find Cunegonde and take some of the gold to a place where they can spend it.

Allusions to actual history, geography and current science

  • Candide makes a passing reference to a fictional Pope Urban X as the father of a character. Voltaire added the following note to Candide which was included in the posthumous 1829 publication: "See the extreme discretion of the author; there has not been up to the present any Pope named Urban X.; he feared to give a bastard to a known Pope. What circumspection! What delicacy of conscience!"[1]

Illustrations

This image is a 1787 illustration of the scene where Candide and Cacambo meet the maimed slave of the sugar mill near Surinam. The drawing is by Moreau; the engraving by Baquoy.
This image is an 1803 illustration of the scene where Candide shoots the two monkeys. The drawing is by Moreau; the engraving by Ghendt.

Voltaire strongly opposed the inclusion of illustrations in his works, as stated in a letter from him to Charles Joseph Panckoucke in 1778; he wrote, "these baubles have never been allowed works of Cicero, Virgil and Horace."[13] Two sets of illustrations for Candide were done by French artist Jean-Michel Moreau le Jeune. The first version was done, at Moreau's own expense, for Kehl's 1787 publication, Oeuvres Complètes de Voltaire.[13] Four images were drawn by Moreau for this edition; these were engraved by Pierre-Charles Baquoy.[14] The second version, of 1803, consisted of seven drawings by Moreau; these were transposed by multiple engravers. This collection was included in the 1819 publication by Renouard. [15]

Adaptations and derivative works

Bernstein's Operetta

Main article: Candide (operetta)

Leonard Bernstein, American composer and conductor, wrote the music to an operetta based on Voltaire's Candide.[16]Candide was originally conceived by Lillian Hellman as a play with incidental music. Bernstein, however, was so excited about this idea that he convinced Hellman to do it as a "comic operetta"; she did the original book for the operetta. Many lyricists worked on the show, including James Agee, then Dorothy Parker, John Latouche, Richard Wilbur, Leonard and Felicia Bernstein, and Hellman. Hershy Kay orchestrated all the pieces but the overture, which Bernstein did himself.[17]

Candide the operetta first opened on Broadway as a musical on December 1, 1956. The premiere production was directed by Tyrone Guthrie and conducted by Samuel Krachmalnick. The sets and costumes were designed by Oliver Smith and Irene Sharaff, respectively.[18]

This original production was choreographed by Anna Sokolow. It featured Robert Rounseville as Candide, Barbara Cook as Cunegonde, Max Adrian as Dr. Pangloss, and Irra Petina as the Old Lady. While this production was a box office flop, the music was highly praised and an original cast album was made. This album gradually became a cult hit. But Hellman's libretto, written partially as a reaction against her being blacklisted, was criticized in a The New York Times review as being too serious an adaptation of Voltaire's original novel , which was much more sardonic, and humorously ridiculous. [19] But Candide would eventually triumph seventeen years later, with a new libretto by Hugh Wheeler which was much more faithful to both the spirit and the letter of Voltaire.

Sciascia's Candido

Candido ovvero un sogno fatto in Sicilia or simply Candido is a work by Leonardo Sciascia which was based off of Voltaire's Candide by the author's own admission. The actual influence of Candide on Candido is, however, a hotly debated topic: a number of theories on the matter have been proposed. For one, Candido is Candide with a happy ending; for another, Voltaire provided Sciascia with only a starting point from which to work.[20]

Gürsel's Le voyage de Candide à Istanbul

Nedim Gürsel wrote his 2001 novel Le voyage de Candide à Istanbul about a minor passage in Candide where its protagonist meets in passing Ahmed III, the disposed Ottoman Turkish sultan. This chance meeting on a ship from Venice to Istanbul is the setting of Gürsel's book.[21]

Others

David Allan Cates did a modern take in X Out of Wonderland, 2005.[specify]

References

  1. ^ Davidson, Ian (January 11, 2005). Voltaire in Exile. New York: Grove Press. p. 53. ISBN 0802117910.
  2. ^ Oxford Color French Dictionary Plus. New York: Oxford University Press Inc. 2004. p. 42. ISBN 0198608985.
  3. ^ Davidson (2005), p. 52-53
  4. ^ Voltaire (1959). Bair, Lowell (ed.). New York: Bantam Dell. ISBN 0-553-21166-8. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. ^ Rouillard, C. D. (November 1962). "Review of "Voltaire and Candide: A Study in the Fusion of History, Art and Philosophy"". Modern Philology. 60 (2): 145–149.
  6. ^ Davidson (2005), p. 52-53
  7. ^ Oake, Roger B. (Spring 1961). "Review of "Voltaire and Candide"". Comparitive Literature. 13 (2): 176–178. DOI 10.2307/1768579.
  8. ^ Beck (1999), p. 203-4.
  9. ^ Scherr, Arthur (Winter 2001). "Voltaire's CANDIDE". Explicator. 59 (2): 74. EBSCO Accession Number 4423176.
  10. ^ Beck, Ervin (Summer 1999). "Voltaire's CANDIDE". Explicator. 57 (4): 203. EBSCO Accession Number 2336667.
  11. ^ Voltaire (1959), p. 107–108
  12. ^ Voltaire (1959), p. 113
  13. ^ a b Bellhouse (2006), p. 756
  14. ^ Bellhouse (2006), p. 757
  15. ^ Bellhouse (2006), p. 769
  16. ^ Peyser, Joan (1987). Bernstein, a biography. New York: Beech Tree Books. p. 247. ISBN 0-688-04918-4.
  17. ^ Peyser (1987), p. 248
  18. ^ Peyser (1987), p. 248
  19. ^ Peyser (1987), p. 249–251
  20. ^ Morrison, Ian R. (January 2002). "Leonardo Sciascia's Candido and Voltaire's Candide". Modern Language Review. 97 (1): 59. EBSCO Accession Number 6388910.
  21. ^ Hitchins, Keith (Summer/Autumn 2002). "Le voyage de Candide à Istanbul". World Literature Today. 76 (3/4): 160. EBSCO Accession Number 9209009. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

Further reading

  • Henry, Patrick (Spring 1977). "Travel in Candide: Moving On But Going Nowhere". Papers on Language & Literature. 13 (2): 193–197. EBSCO Accession Number 7728974.

External links

Quotations related to Candide at Wikiquote

Another electronic text of Candide, including the lesser known second part

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