and wrung from them such books as Candide and Rasselas , failed only in its immediate aim. Its highest hope is with us still, quickened though sobered by the failure of immediate attainment. A State can be no better than the citizens of which it is composed. Our labour now is not to mould States but make citizens.
—from Morley’s introduction to Candide (1922)
E. M. FORSTER
[Voltaire] wrote enormously: plays (now forgotten); short stories, and some of them still read—especially that masterpiece, Candide . He was a journalist, and a pamphleteer, he dabbled in science and philosophy, he was a good popular historian, he compiled a dictionary, and he wrote hundreds of letters to people all over Europe. He had correspondents everywhere, and he was so witty, so up-to-date, so on the spot that kings and emperors were proud to get a letter from Voltaire and hurried to answer it with their own hand. He is not a great creative artist. But he is a great man with a powerful intellect and a warm heart, enlisted in the service of humanity. That is why I rank him with Shakespeare as a spiritual spokesman for Europe. Two hundred years before the Nazis came, he was the complete anti-Nazi.
—from Two Cheers for Democracy (1951)
Questions
Because God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-benevolent, any world He created would have to be the best possible. It is true that there are murders, rapists, thieves, and bloody-minded dictators, but free will is so important a good that evildoers must be allowed to choose to do evil. Similarly, for there to be the maximum amount of order, beauty, and variety in nature, there also has to be the possibility of droughts, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and the like. Such, greatly simplified, are the kinds of ideas against which Voltaire directs his satire.
1. Does Candide refute such ideas successfully?
2. Could it be that Voltaire’s satire is not so much directed against these ideas as against people who use them as a pretext for a heartless and self-righteous complacency?
3. What do you understand Candide to mean when he says that from now on he will “tend his garden”? Refrain from public life? Accept things as they are? Try to expand this phrase into a program for living.
4. What is your own answer to the violence and misery of human life as Voltaire depicts it?
FOR FURTHER READING
Biographical and General Studies
Ayer, A. J. Voltaire . New York: Random House, 1986.
Barber, William H. Leibniz in France from Amault to Voltaire . Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955. Reprint: New York: Garland, 1985.
—. Voltaire . London: Arnold, 1960.
Besterman, Theodore. Voltaire . New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1969.
Bird, Stephen. Reinventing Voltaire: The Politics of Commemoration in Nineteenth-century France . Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2000.
Bottiglia, William F., ed. Voltaire : A Collection of Critical Essays . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1968.
Gay, Peter. Voltaire’s Politics : The Poet as Realist . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1959. Second edition: New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988.
Lanson, Gustave. Voltaire . 1906. Translated by Robert A. Wagoner; introduction by Peter Gay. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1966.
Mitford, Nancy. Voltaire in Love . New York: Harper, 1957. Paperback edition: New York: Carroll and Graf, 1999.
Sareil, Jean. “Voltaire.” In European Writers: The Age of Reason and the Enlightenment , edited by George Stade. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1984, pp. 367-392.
Torrey, Norman. The Spirit of Voltaire . New York: Columbia University Press, 1938. Reprint: New York: Russell and Russell, 1968.
Wade, Ira Owen. The Intellectual Development of Voltaire . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969.
Critical Studies of Candide
Barber, William H. Voltaire : “ Candide .” London: Arnold, 1960.
Bottiglia, William F., ed. Voltaire’s Candide: Analysis of a Classic. Geneva : Institut et Musée Voltaire, 1959,
—from Morley’s introduction to Candide (1922)
E. M. FORSTER
[Voltaire] wrote enormously: plays (now forgotten); short stories, and some of them still read—especially that masterpiece, Candide . He was a journalist, and a pamphleteer, he dabbled in science and philosophy, he was a good popular historian, he compiled a dictionary, and he wrote hundreds of letters to people all over Europe. He had correspondents everywhere, and he was so witty, so up-to-date, so on the spot that kings and emperors were proud to get a letter from Voltaire and hurried to answer it with their own hand. He is not a great creative artist. But he is a great man with a powerful intellect and a warm heart, enlisted in the service of humanity. That is why I rank him with Shakespeare as a spiritual spokesman for Europe. Two hundred years before the Nazis came, he was the complete anti-Nazi.
—from Two Cheers for Democracy (1951)
Questions
Because God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-benevolent, any world He created would have to be the best possible. It is true that there are murders, rapists, thieves, and bloody-minded dictators, but free will is so important a good that evildoers must be allowed to choose to do evil. Similarly, for there to be the maximum amount of order, beauty, and variety in nature, there also has to be the possibility of droughts, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and the like. Such, greatly simplified, are the kinds of ideas against which Voltaire directs his satire.
1. Does Candide refute such ideas successfully?
2. Could it be that Voltaire’s satire is not so much directed against these ideas as against people who use them as a pretext for a heartless and self-righteous complacency?
3. What do you understand Candide to mean when he says that from now on he will “tend his garden”? Refrain from public life? Accept things as they are? Try to expand this phrase into a program for living.
4. What is your own answer to the violence and misery of human life as Voltaire depicts it?
FOR FURTHER READING
Biographical and General Studies
Ayer, A. J. Voltaire . New York: Random House, 1986.
Barber, William H. Leibniz in France from Amault to Voltaire . Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955. Reprint: New York: Garland, 1985.
—. Voltaire . London: Arnold, 1960.
Besterman, Theodore. Voltaire . New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1969.
Bird, Stephen. Reinventing Voltaire: The Politics of Commemoration in Nineteenth-century France . Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2000.
Bottiglia, William F., ed. Voltaire : A Collection of Critical Essays . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1968.
Gay, Peter. Voltaire’s Politics : The Poet as Realist . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1959. Second edition: New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988.
Lanson, Gustave. Voltaire . 1906. Translated by Robert A. Wagoner; introduction by Peter Gay. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1966.
Mitford, Nancy. Voltaire in Love . New York: Harper, 1957. Paperback edition: New York: Carroll and Graf, 1999.
Sareil, Jean. “Voltaire.” In European Writers: The Age of Reason and the Enlightenment , edited by George Stade. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1984, pp. 367-392.
Torrey, Norman. The Spirit of Voltaire . New York: Columbia University Press, 1938. Reprint: New York: Russell and Russell, 1968.
Wade, Ira Owen. The Intellectual Development of Voltaire . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969.
Critical Studies of Candide
Barber, William H. Voltaire : “ Candide .” London: Arnold, 1960.
Bottiglia, William F., ed. Voltaire’s Candide: Analysis of a Classic. Geneva : Institut et Musée Voltaire, 1959,
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