Voltaire

If you have a solid, basic knowledge of French grammar and a moderately-developed range of vocabulary, you should find pleasure in reading this novel in the original French with the help of the Vocabulary Keys: lists of vocabulary words and phrases with their translations found on each page. When Candide was first published, it's thinly veiled political satire, blasphemy, and humorous attacks on intellectualism caused great scandal. More recently, it is seen to be Voltaire's magnum opus in which he attacks with ridicule, caricatures and satire the philosphers, theologians, politicians, armed forces of his day and universal human foibles in general. Each of the thirty short chapters is an episode. In the first sixteen chapters, Candide has been a student of Professor Pangloss, who instills in him Leibnizian optimism. No matter what happens, Pangloss constantly repeats his mantras: "all is for the best" and this is "the best of all possible worlds." However, Candide is kicked out of the paradise of his home at the castle of Baron Thunder-ten-Tronckh in Westphalia because he was caught kissing the Baron's daughter, Cunégonde. He proceeds to suffer through many horrible punishments and catastrophies as he wanders from Germany to Holland, to Portugal and on to South America. With each misfortune his is disillusioned and begins to doubt that he is in the best of all possible worlds. Fortunately for Candide, he gathers up a few companions along the way who counterbalance his Panglossian optimism with more realistic, pragmatic insights which help him make sense of the absurd harshness he finds all around him.