"It is impossible that things should be other than they are; for everything is right."
Ever the optimist, Candide goes into the world believing that everything will work out in the end because everything that happens is supposed to happen. His faith will be tested time and again as he and the people around him endure many hardships and eventually he will become disillusioned with his former philosophy - though one wonders if he might have been able to retain some shred of optimism if only his beloved Cunegonde had not been rendered so very ugly.
In telling the story, Voltaire folds in many elements of historical fact, including the Seven Years' War and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, and moves the plot along at a quick place. Over the course of thirty short chapters Candide is exiled from his home in Westphalia, recruited into military service that nearly kills him, nearly drowns en route to Lisbon where he survives an earthquake, is arrested for heresy and sentenced to be tortured and killed, escapes to Buenos Aires, finds El Dorado and leaves with a fortune (most of which will end up being lost), returns to Europe via England, and finally settles in Turkey. He is also continuously losing people in his life to death only to have those people show up again later, revealing that their injuries were not quite life threatening.
Many terrible things happen in Candide and through them Voltaire casts a critical eye on the governments of Europe, lightly veiling this element behind a sharply rendered parody of a romantic adventure story. The result was that the book was largely denounced at the time of its publication, though it still became an undisputed best seller. Today it is Voltaire's most widely read work and is frequently included in lists of books that make up the Western canon. It's an amusing (and quick) read that remains engaging after some 250 years, an enduring classic that is likely to be read for as long as human beings remain a literate species. Candide may be slight in size, but it's impact has certainly been great.
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