I read this in one sitting. It’s only 115 pages but Voltaire packs more wit and disaster into them than most authors manage in a thousand.
The premise is simple: Candide, an impossibly naive young man, is taught that this is “the best of all possible worlds.” Then the world proceeds to prove that wrong in every conceivable way — war, earthquakes, slavery, shipwrecks, the Inquisition. It’s absurd, violent, and genuinely funny. Voltaire wrote this in 1759 and the satire still hits.
There’s a chapter set in El Dorado — a golden city somewhere in South America — where Candide and his companion ride on large red sheep. Those “sheep” are llamas. Reading a French philosopher from the 1700s describe llamas as exotic red sheep is one of the funniest things I’ve encountered in literature. As a Peruvian, I can confirm: they are not sheep, and they are not that cooperative.
What I appreciate most is the ending. After all the chaos and philosophy, Candide arrives at a quiet conclusion: “il faut cultiver notre jardin” — we must cultivate our garden. Stop debating whether the world is good or bad and just do useful work. It’s a surprisingly grounded message from a book full of absurdity.
Short, sharp, and still relevant. One of those books that changes how you look at optimism.