"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 chaos and confusion when he is ejected from his Edenic home and cast out into the harsh reality of the real world.

Voltaire's Candide is a Job-like character who attempts to greet the world with a smile but is beset by one terrible circumstance after another, each challenge pushing him closer to abandoning his Liebnizian optimism. Through Candide, Voltaire satirizes the military, government, religion, theology and philosophy itself.

One of the most studied and revered manuscripts in history, "Candide" has become a classic of French literature and has been translated into almost every language on earth. It is presented here in it's original and unabridged format along with an Introduction and footnotes by Voltaire scholar Philip Littell.