Candide

[kahn-deed]

noun

1. a philosophical novel (1759) by Voltaire.

Candide

1. A novel of satire by Voltaire, in which a long series of calamities happens to the title character, an extremely naive and innocent young man, and his teacher, Doctor Pangloss. Pangloss, who reflects the optimistic philosophy of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz, nevertheless insists that, despite the calamities, “all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.”

Example Sentences

She was as adept at serious drama as she was at musicals and comedy - she appeared in Richard III and Henry V for the Royal Shakespeare Company, then won an Olivier Award for best actress in a musical for Candide in the 1980s.

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Before it’s resolved there is an amusing anecdote about a cow obituary in verse and a concluding bow to Voltaire’s “Candide” when Jean Louise concedes that “all things happen for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds.”

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There’s also Voltaire’s “Candide”; Charlie Chaplin’s capitalist critique, “Monsieur Verdoux”; Walt Kelly’s comic strip, “Pogo,” with its animalizations of Joseph McCarthy and Spiro Agnew; humorists Stan Freberg, Tom Lehrer and Beyond the Fringe; Mad magazine, the Onion, and on and on.

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From this point on, the book follows the bizarre, episodic structure of Voltaire’s “Candide,” crossed with Franz Kafka’s “Amerika.”

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The highfalutin parallel is to “Candide,” the classic 18th century novel about a naif who endures the horrors of civilization: chaos, selfishness, disease and destruction.

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