Enlightenment | Representative Works
Candide
Voltaire’s novel Candide (1759) is a satire attacking the philosophical leanings of his day. In the story, Candide and his traveling companions (Pangloss, an optimist; Cunégonde, his love; Martin the Pessimist; and Cacambo, his valet) endure hardships and witness the worst of humankind’s cruelty and folly. In the end, Candide concludes that it is best to end the philosophical debates and simply cultivate one’s own garden.
The winding plot of Candide includes incidents that Voltaire’s contemporaries readily...
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