"Candide" is the classic satirical novel by French author and philosopher Voltaire and was his direct rebuke to the German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Liebniz's teachings about optimism and the belief that we are living in the "best of all possible worlds." Voltaire strongly disagreed with this outlook and so created the character of Candide, a simple man who is brought up in isolation in a sprawling castle where being optimistic was easy and natural...and then plunges his character into...

Candide, ou l'Optimisme is a French satire first published in 1759 by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment. The novella has been widely translated, with English versions titled Candide: or, All for the Best (1759); Candide: or, The Optimist (1762); and Candide: Optimism (1947). It begins with a young man, Candide, who is living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism by his mentor, Pr...