Voltaire published Candide in 1759 as a furious satire on Leibnizian optimism — the philosophical position that ours is the best of all possible worlds. The naive young Candide is ejected from his comfortable castle and subjected to a relentless series of disasters, wars, earthquakes, and cruelties that demolish his tutor Pangloss’s cheerful philosophy at every turn.
Wickedly funny, breathlessly paced, and philosophically serious beneath its comic surface, Candide is one of the great short masterpieces of world literature. Download this public-domain English translation as a free EPUB.