Candide: Or Optimism (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) - Paperback

by Voltaire (Author), Theo Cuffe (Translator), Michael Wood (Introduction by)

With its vibrant new translation, perceptive introduction, and witty packaging, this new edition of Voltaire's masterpiece belongs in the hands of every reader pondering our assumptions about human behavior and our place in the world. Candide tells of the hilarious adventures of the naïve Candide, who doggedly believes that "all is for the best" even when faced with injustice, suffering, and despair. Controversial and entertaining, Candide is a book that is vitally relevant today in our world pervaded by--as Candide would say--"the mania for insisting that all is well when all is by no means well."

Author Biography

Voltaire, was born in 1694. For twenty years Voltaire lived chiefly away from Paris. In this, his most prolific period, he wrote such satirical tales as "Zadig" (1747) and "Candide" (1759). He died in 1778. Theo Cuffe translated Voltaire's Micromégas and Other Short Fictions for Penguin Classics. Michael Wood is the writer and presenter of many critically acclaimed series on television, including In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great and its accompanying book.