Candide, or, Optimism / Voltaire ; translated by Burton Raffel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Voltaire, 1694-1778.

Contributor:

Raffel, Burton.

Standardized Title:

Candide. English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Voltaire, 1694-1778.

Voltaire.

French literature--18th century.

French literature.

Satire, French--18th century.

Satire, French.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (172 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Candide

Optimism

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, c2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In this new translation of Voltaire's Candide, distinguished translator Burton Raffel captures the French novel's irreverent spirit and offers a vivid, contemporary version of the 250-year-old text. Raffel casts the novel in an English idiom that--had Voltaire been a twenty-first-century American--he might himself have employed. The translation is immediate and unencumbered, and for the first time makes Voltaire the satirist a wicked pleasure for English-speaking readers. Candide recounts the fantastically improbable travels, adventures, and misfortunes of the young Candide, his beloved Cunégonde, and his devoutly optimistic tutor, Pangloss. Endowed at the start with good fortune and every prospect for happiness and success, the characters nevertheless encounter every conceivable misfortune. Voltaire's philosophical tale, in part an ironic attack on the optimistic thinking of such figures as G. W. Leibniz and Alexander Pope, has proved enormously influential over the years. In a general introduction to this volume, historian Johnson Kent Wright places Candide in the contexts of Voltaire's life and work and the Age of Enlightenment.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Introduction Candide, Voltaire, and the Enlightenment

Translator's Note

Chapter One. How Candide was raised in a noble mansion, and how he was driven away

Chapter Two. What happened to Candide among the Bulgars

Chapter Three. How Candide saved himself from the Bulgars, and what became of him

Chapter Four. How Candide met his old philosophy teacher, Doctor Pangloss, and what had happened to him

Chapter Five. Tempest, shipwreck, earthquake, and what happened to Doctor Pangloss, Candide, and Jacques the Anabaptist

Chapter Six. How they had a beautiful auto-da-fé in order to put an end to the earthquake, and how Candide was flogged

Chapter Seven. How an old woman took care of Candide and how he got back his beloved

Chapter Eight. Cunégonde's story

Chapter Nine. What happened to Cunégonde, to Candide, to the Grand Inquisitor, and to a Jew

Chapter Ten. In what difficulty Candide, Cunégonde, and the old woman reached Cadiz, and how they boarded a ship

Chapter Eleven. The old woman's story

Chapter Twelve. More about the old woman's misfortunes

Chapter Thirteen. How Candide was forced to leave lovely Cunégonde and the old woman

Chapter Fourteen. How Candide and Cacambo were greeted by the Jesuits of Paraguay

Chapter Fifteen. How Candide killed his dear Cunégonde's brother

Chapter Sixteen. What happened to the two travelers with two girls, two monkeys, and the savages known as Oreillons

Chapter Seventeen. Arrival of Candide and his valet in the land of Eldorado, and what they saw there

Chapter Eighteen. What they saw in Eldorado

Chapter Nineteen. How they got to Surinam, and how Candide came to know Martin

Chapter Twenty. What happened at sea to Candide and Martin

Chapter Twenty-one. Candide and Martin approach the French coast and argue

Chapter Twenty-two. What happened to Candide and Martin in France

Chapter Twenty-three. Candide and Martin reach the British coast, and what they see there

Chapter Twenty-four. Paquette and Friar Giroflée

Chapter Twenty-five. Visit to Lord Pococuranté, a nobleman of Venice

Chapter Twenty-six. A dinner that Candide and Martin shared with six foreigners, and who they were

Chapter Twenty-seven. Candide's journey to Constantinople

Chapter Twenty-eight. What happened to Candide, Cunégonde, Pangloss, Martin, etc.

Chapter Twenty-nine. How Candide found Cunégonde and the old woman

Chapter Thirty. Conclusion

Suggested Reading

Notes:

"Translated from the German of Dr. Ralph with additions found in the doctor's pocket when he died, at Minden, in the year of our Lord 1759."

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9786611729691

9781281729699

1281729698

9780300127782

0300127782

OCLC:

952732588