Candide by Voltaire

This was suggested to me by a friend whose taste I suspected was admirable. I was right! Excellent recommendation!

At approximately 100 pages, this book is more essay than novel. The main advantage there is that I could lump myself over to the library around 17:00 and still finish the book by 20:00.

It is the story of a naive young man, Candide, who experiences trials and tribulations all over the world as he searches for fortune and his sweetheart Cunegonde. He is counseled by an optimist philosopher, Dr. Pangloss, who asserts that all things are the best and for the best. Through many misadventures, Candide and Cunegonde and Pangloss all begin to feel that humans are actually awful and nothing is for the best and nothing makes any sense.

The thing I liked best about this was the dark wittiness. If sass were an Olympic sport, Voltaire would be Michael Phelps. One German town is named "Waldberghofftrarbkdikdorff". I think the humour is a way for the author to create an emotional distance between the characters and the audience so that we don't get so lost in the character that we miss the bigger themes.

Clearly Voltarie was a very well-educated person. He does that Oscar Wilde thing from Dorian Grey: have characters discussing all the important literature, music, and art of the day so that he can show off all the stuff he knows about it. I always like that because it feels like the writer is very close to the surface of their own disguise.

In the end, Candide and his friends are not optimists, but they aren't pessimists either. It reminds me of Ecclesiastes, where the conclusion is:

So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands, but no one knows whether love or hate awaits them. All share a common destiny—the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not.

As it is with the good,
    so with the sinful;
as it is with those who take oaths,
    so with those who are afraid to take them.

This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead. Anyone who is among the living has hope—even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!...

Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do. Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil. Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

Voltaire, like Solomon, concludes that the greatest happiness available, above any philosophy or adventure, is to cultivate our garden. I highly recommend this book and also gardening.

Up next: Walden and other writings by  Henry David Thoreau. As always, please recommend more things to read if you think of them! I'll try anything but James Joyce.