Candide

First published in 1759, this short, savage satire follows the guileless Candide, raised to believe, on the authority of his tutor Pangloss, that he lives in the best of all possible worlds. Expelled from his sheltered home, he is thrown into war, the Lisbon earthquake, the Inquisition, shipwreck, and betrayal, meeting misery at nearly every turn. Voltaire uses the runaway plot to demolish the fashionable optimism of his day and to mock cruelty, greed, and religious hypocrisy wherever he finds them. After chasing fortune and his beloved Cunegonde across continents, Candide settles on a plainer wisdom: that we must cultivate our own garden. Quick, funny, and merciless, it remains the sharpest of philosophical tales. Free PDF and EPUB edition available.