Satire

Candide

by Voltaire

A relentlessly optimistic young man is dragged through every disaster the eighteenth century could arrange, purely to mock a philosophy that insists it is all for the best. It is very funny and, underneath that, quite furious. Voltaire wrote it fast, and it reads that way, in the best sense.

The librarian

Read it in the Library After Dark Or read it as plain text

Reading time

About 2 hr 25 min

Where to find it

On the Satire shelves

Edition

Project Gutenberg, eBook #19942. In the public domain in the United States.