Candide by Voltaire

 

Original language: French

Year first published: 1759

Format: Amazon Kindle Edition

A philosopher who believes till the end that "this is the best of worlds" and his royal pupil who finds it to be the opposite in the harshest way possible, coupled with a bit of travelling around the world and loads of characters... You have Candide.

Voltaire's Candide revolves around the story of Candide, the son of a noble, who is educated by Dr Pangloss, the royal philosopher who irrespective of everything he has been through, still believes that "this is the best of worlds". How life proves both Dr Pangloss and his student Candide wrong form the rest of the story.

Considering that this is a 300-year-old book read today, many of its standards, themes etc. may be outdated for the readers and it's not right to critique them, considering the audience of the time period. But the story itself constantly reminds the reader that unlike what Pangloss says, the "best of worlds" is not given but what we make of it. The story has too many characters who appear at, or are reminded at random points of the story, possibly making it difficult for the reader to keep track of who is who.

Perhaps the biggest drawback to the book is the chapter division ( I read the book in Amazon Kindle, not sure if it is so in other versions). There are 30 chapters for a 120-page book, where almost every turning point in the story( which itself is too many) acts as a chapter break. There are a few good turning points in the tale, which could have halved the number of chapters.( I can blame neither the author nor the translators who stuck to the original's format here).

+ : Well-intentioned story

- : Too many characters and chapter breaks

Verdict: 8.5/10

Comment: Worth a Read (if you have a good Memory)