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Candide

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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; Paul Klee [1]
LanguageFrench
GenreSatire, Picaresque novel[specify]
Publication date
January 15, 1759[2]
Publication placeFrance France
ISBN0-553-21166-8
Followed byCandide, ou l'optimisme, seconde partie 

Candide, ou l'Optimisme (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". [3] In translation, Candide, ou l'Optimisme has been published under various English titles including, Candide: Or, All for the Best (1759); Candide: Or, The Optimist (1762); and Candide: Or, Optimism (1947). [4]

Candide, Voltaire's magnum opus,[5] is widely considered to be one of the most significant works of the Western canon, and it is thus often included on lists of most influential, or greatest books. Candide is listed in The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages[1]; it's been named as one of the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, and of the 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written; and it is included in the collection Great Books of the Western World.[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.[6]

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.[7]

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.[8] Copies were also sent to Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour.[9] 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.[10]

Characters in Candide

  • Candide, the protagonist
  • Cunégonde , the Baron's daughter, is also Candide's cousin and love interest. She is thought to be modeled after both Voltaire's mistresses: his niece Marie Louise Mignot Denis and the scientist, Émilie du Châtelet. She may be associated symbolically with Eve.[11]
  • Dr. Pangloss, Candide's tutor
  • Cacambo is Candide's very practical valet of a diverse ethnic background. His name is derived from the Spanish word caca which means feces.[12]
  • Martin is Candide's traveling companion, and a Manichaean. Some critics believe that Martin is treated sympathetically, signifying the ideal philosophy of Candide is pessimistic. Others disagree, citing Voltaire's negative description of Martin's principles and the conclusion of the work in which Martin becomes passive.[13]
  • 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. [14]
  • 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 comprising ten chapters:I–X take place in Europe; XI–XX are in America; and XXI–XXX are in Europe and the Ottoman Empire. [15]

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, is flogged, almost burned 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 stay 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." [16] 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".[17]

Style

Candide was designed to be entertaining satire, and enjoyable to read. It thus often contrasts great tragedy and hilarity in a completely unrealistic plot in which characters often are resurrected. Candide is, according to Ian Davidson, biographer of Voltaire, "short, light, rapid and humorous".[5] As a picaresque novel, Candide parodies novels with adventure and romance.[18]

Analysis

Candide is one of the most popular literary works of all time, and is thus the subject of much literary criticism, some of it quite esoteric. In the allegory, Voltaire pokes fun at religion and theologians, governments and armies and philosophies and philosophers.[5] The controversial conclusion of the work, "We must cultivate our garden", especially, has been written about voluminously.[19]

Optimism

See also: Panglossianism
See also: Dystopia

Candide is a work which satirizes various philosophical and religious theories which Voltaire criticized. The most primary of these is Leibnizian optimism, which Voltaire makes to look absurd in the face of the seemingly endless calamities depicted in the novel. This treatment of optimism should be contrasted with the poetic one of Voltaire's Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne (1756).[5] Despite his horrendous fortune, the character Pangloss, who is a self-proclaimed Leibnizian, holds to his optimism, repeating often, "Tout est pour le mieux dans le meilleur des mondes possibles" (English: "All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds"). It is to this optimistic philosophy that Candide adheres for the majority of the story.[20]

Pangloss, however, is a caricature of Leibniz, disagreeing with the philosopher on at least one point.

In the Theodicy, Leibniz considers the objection "that it is impossible to produce the best, because there is no perfect creature, and that it is always possible to produce one which would be more perfect."His reply is not that it is possible to produce a perfect creature, but that "what can be said of a creature or of a particular substance, which can always be surpassed by another, is not to be applied to the universe." The production of the best possible world does not entail the production of any individuals in it which are the best possible instances of their type. Thus the denial that there are any such individuals does not imply that this is not the best possible world.[21]

It is also conjectured that Pangloss was based off of historic figure of the Duchess of Saxe-Gotha, Louisa Dorothea von Meiningen. Some of her statements likely inspired those of Pangloss's.[21]

Evil

As part of his discussion of optimism in Candide, Voltaire exemplifies many different types of evil in the world. Most notably, Candide the character witnesses the great natural disaster that was the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. There is also, disease and the sinking of ships due to storms. Of course, ships are also sunk by Man. Indeed, man-made war, thievery, and murder, for instance are treated extensively in Candide . As William Bottiglia describes it, Voltaire is "comprehensive" in the discussions of the evils of man.[22]

Conclusion

The conclusion of Candide, which has the protagonist and his fellow travelers finally settle down under the mantra, "we must cultivate our garden", has meanings on many different levels. For instance, there is the literal sense referring to the necessary occupation of Candide and his companion with feeding themselves. There was also meaning for the author personally: Voltaire himself was a gardener at his estates in Les Délices and Ferney.[23]

Voltaire develops no formal, systematic philosophy for the characters to adopt; but many philosophical and literary interpretations of the plot exist.[24] Yet he does refute optimism continuously, albeit artistically, theatrically and informally. The conclusion of the novel may be thought of not a philosophical alternative to optimism, but a prescribed practical outlook. Furthermore, some see in Candide's final resolve that of Voltaire and a strong connection between the development of the character and the author.[25]

Some, though, disagree with this assertion, arguing instead that tending one's garden is not advocated at all; but that Candide and his determination are not Voltaire's. Indeed, whether Candide may be considered a bildungsroman. Similarly, there is debate on whether or not Voltaire was prescribing a passive retreat from society or the active, industrial contribution to it.[26]

Race

Mary Bellhouse, a professor of political science, believed that Voltaire was a supporter of 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.[27]

Garden motif

William F. Bottiglia identifies at least seven gardens in Candide: the castle in Westphalia, symbolic of the Garden of Eden; a Jesuit place; Eldorado; the garden of Pococurante; Cacambo's garden; the Turk's garden; and Candide's own garden. Bottiglia has noted that these gardens share biblical references and are each very symbolic in this allegory[28] . Bottiglia even goes so far as to propose that the gardens, and the conclusion to cultivate one's garden refers to Voltaire's great support for the writers of the Encyclopédie.

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!"[3]
  • The 1757 execution of British admiral John Byng is alluded to in Candide. According to Martin, the character representing Byng is executed only "pour encourager les autres" (or "to encourage the others"). This explanation has since become well-known.[5]

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."[27] 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.[27] Four images were drawn by Moreau for this edition; these were engraved by Pierre-Charles Baquoy.[29] 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. [30]

Adaptations and derivative works

Seconde partie (Part two)

In 1760, one year after Voltaire published Candide in 1759, a sequel to his novella was published with the name Candide, ou l'optimisme, seconde partie.[31] This was attributed both to a Thorel de Campigneulles, "a now largely unknown writer of third-rate moralising novels;" and Henri Joseph Du Laurens, who is suspected of having habitually plagiarised Voltaire.[32] The story continues in this sequel with Candide partaking in new adventures in the Ottoman Empire, Persia and Denmark. The work has potential use in studies of the popular and literary receptions of Candide.[33]

Bernstein's operetta

Main article: Candide (operetta)

Leonard Bernstein, American composer and conductor, wrote the music to an operetta based on Voltaire's Candide.[34]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.[35]

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.[36]

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. [37] 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.[38] Candido was published in 1977 in Einaudi, Torino.[specify]

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 Turkish sultan. This chance meeting on a ship from Venice to Istanbul is the setting of Gürsel's book.[39]

Others

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

Footnotes

  1. ^ Klee, Paul. (2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved June 6, 2007, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9045729
  2. ^ Davidson, Ian (January 11, 2005). Voltaire in Exile. New York: Grove Press. p. 53. ISBN 0802117910.
  3. ^ Oxford Color French Dictionary Plus. New York: Oxford University Press Inc. 2004. p. 42. ISBN 0198608985.
  4. ^ Sturm, Mary J.; Parsell, David B. (2001). Critical Survey of Short Fiction (Second Revised ed.). Salem Press, Inc. EBSCO Accession Number MOL0120000549.
  5. ^ a b c d e Davidson (2005), p. 54
  6. ^ Davidson (2005), p. 52-53
  7. ^ Voltaire (1959) [1759]. Bair, Lowell (ed.). Candide. New York: Bantam Dell. ISBN 0-553-21166-8.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ Davidson (2005), p. 52-53
  10. ^ Oake, Roger B. (Spring 1961). "Review of "Voltaire and Candide"". Comparitive Literature. 13 (2): 176–178. DOI 10.2307/1768579.
  11. ^ Scherr, Arthur (Spring 1993). "Voltaire's 'Candide': a tale of women's equality". The Midwest Quarterly. 34 (3): 261–282. Thomson Gale Document Number A13877067.
  12. ^ Beck (1999), p. 203-4.
  13. ^ Bottiglia (1951), p. 726
  14. ^ Scherr, Arthur (Winter 2001). "Voltaire's CANDIDE". Explicator. 59 (2): 74. EBSCO Accession Number 4423176.
  15. ^ Beck, Ervin (Summer 1999). "Voltaire's CANDIDE". Explicator. 57 (4): 203. EBSCO Accession Number 2336667.
  16. ^ Voltaire (1959), p. 107–108
  17. ^ Voltaire (1959), p. 113
  18. ^ Bottiglia, William F. (1968). "Candide's Garden". Voltaire; a collection of critical essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice–Hall, Inc.: 89–92. Library of Congress Number: 68–17823.
  19. ^ Scherr (1993)
  20. ^ Radner, Daisie; Radner, Michael (October 1998). "Optimality in biology: Pangloss or Leibniz?". Monist. 81 (4): p669, 17p. EBSCO Accession Number 1713757. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  21. ^ a b Radner & Radner (1998), Part I.
  22. ^ Bottiglia, William F. (September 1951). "Candide's Garden". PMLA. 66 (5): 720.
  23. ^ Davidson (2005), p. 55
  24. ^ Bottiglia (1951), p. 723–724
  25. ^ Bottiglia (1951), p. 719–720
  26. ^ Wolper, Roy S. (Winter 1969). "Candide, Gull in the Garden?". Eighteenth-Century Studies. 3 (2): 265–277.
  27. ^ a b c Bellhouse, Mary L. (December 2006). "Candide Shoots the Monkey Lovers: Representing Black Men in Eighteenth-Century French Visual Culture". Political Theory. 34 (6). Sage Publications: 756. DOI 10.1177/0090591706293020. Cite error: The named reference "bellhouse756" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  28. ^ Bottiglia (1951), p. 727
  29. ^ Bellhouse (2006), p. 757
  30. ^ Bellhouse (2006), p. 769
  31. ^ Astbury, Kate (April 2005). "Candide, ou l'optimisme, seconde partie (1760) / Jean-François Marmontel: un intellectuel exemplaire au siècle des Lumières". Modern Language Review. 100 (2). Modern Humanities Research Association: 503. EBSCO Accession Number 16763209.
  32. ^ Voltaire. Clark, Roger (ed.). Candide. Wordsworth Classics. pp. VIII, IX. ISBN 9781853260636.
  33. ^ Astbury (2005), p. 503
  34. ^ Peyser, Joan (1987). Bernstein, a biography. New York: Beech Tree Books. p. 247. ISBN 0-688-04918-4.
  35. ^ Peyser (1987), p. 248
  36. ^ Peyser (1987), p. 248
  37. ^ Peyser (1987), p. 249–251
  38. ^ Morrison, Ian R. (January 2002). "Leonardo Sciascia's Candido and Voltaire's Candide". Modern Language Review. 97 (1): 59. EBSCO Accession Number 6388910.
  39. ^ 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

  • Betts, C. J. (April 1985). "On the Beginning and Ending of Candide". The Modern Language Review. 80 (2): 283–292.
  • Henry, Patrick (Spring 1977). "Travel in Candide: Moving On But Going Nowhere". Papers on Language & Literature. 13 (2): 193–197. EBSCO Accession Number 7728974.
  • Henry, Patrick (Winter 1977). "Time in Candide". Studies in Short Fiction. 14 (1): 86–8. EBSCO Accession Number 7150968.
  • Henry, Patrick (Spring 1977). "Working in Candide's Garden". Studies in Short Fiction. 14 (2): 183–184. EBSCO Accession Number 7153217.
  • Henry, Patrick (1987). "Contre Barthes". Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century. 249. Retrieved 2007-07-10.
  • Kirby, David (Summer 1993). "The new Candide or what I learned in the theory wars". Virginia Quarterly Review. 69 (3): p393, 15p. EBSCO Accession Number 9308316577. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  • Marsh, Leonard (Spring 2004). "Voltaire's CANDIDE". Explicator. 62 (3): 144–146. EBSCO Accession Number 13275608.
  • Mason, H. T. (January 1970). "Voltaire's "Contes": An "État Présent"". The Modern Language Review. 65 (1): 19–35.

Quotations related to Candide at Wikiquote

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