book # 1

Candide (Voltaire)

Among my various 2009 self-enrichment projects, reading books has taken the backseat so far this year. I just have the worst time staying focused on them, sometimes. Anyway, Candide was my first real effort to sit down and read, and it was very rewarding. Generally I think there are two big categories of books/reading I like- politics/history/news, and light, smart satire. Candide fits perfectly into the latter category.

I expected this book to be "200 years ago" funny- but it is hilarious today. The comedy comes on a few different levels- it's vicious satire, ridiculing political, religious, social conventions at every opportunity. It's a great parody of classic romantic adventure stories (especially the cartoonishly handy, virtuous sidekick Cacambo, the ridiculous coincidences that reunite Candide with people he knows at every turn, and the particular sequence of heroically murdering the Jew and the Inquisitor and taking Cunegonde.) It's also amusingly blunt, shockingly profane at points, and also applies weirdness and dryly phrased hyperbole to fine effect.

Particularly hilarious or compelling passages, worth revisiting: poignant philosophy about holding on to lives we hate in ch 12; funny descriptions of Don Fernando in ch 13; ch 16-18 in the new world are particularly excellent- the hilarious stuff with the apes and the women, Cacambo's ridiculous usefulness, and the very thought provoking experience in El Dorado; the encounter with the slave in ch 19 is definitely memorable; ch 22 skewers contemporary France and European mores very well; the execution of the admiral in ch 23 definitely stands out; signor pococurante in ch 25 is a pretty interesting character with an well argued, cynical philosophy; ch 29, when candide initially realizes that he is not attracted to cunegonde anymore, but has to awkwardly act like he still does, is hilarious; and the resolution in ch 30 is generally interesting and worth examining.

And some more great things: the post-earthquake auto da fe (public torture), religiously assumed to stave off earthquakes, is immediately followed by a second, brutal earthquake. Pangloss' proud line near the end, "Of course I won't change my mind, I'm a Philosopher!" Jacques the Anabaptist saves a drowning man, then falls into the sea himself and is not helped, left to drown; this brutish sailor who lets him die is one of the only survivors. Candide earns command of an infantry unit just because he performs the drill well. The fact that Pangloss' philosophy in ch 1 seems perfectly suited to defend and explain every aspect of his patron, the Baron's power. All sorts of mundanely noted, vicious ridicule throughout the book.

This was a very smart and funny book, and the edition I read had a lot of pretty enlightening footnotes, which I only started reading through around chapter 20 or so, so there's a great opportunity to reread this book and learn even more about Voltaire's intentions and his targets.