Candide: A Reader's Guide
Voltaire's satire — optimism demolished by war, disaster, and "cultivate your garden."
Voltaire's Candide (1759) follows naive Candide taught Pangloss's Leibnizian optimism — "best of all possible worlds" — through war, earthquake, slavery, Inquisition, Eldorado disillusionment.
Ending
Retreat to garden labor — famous "il faut cultiver notre jardin."
Style
Swift pace, dark comedy, philosophical demolition.
Themes
Suffering versus abstract theory, hypocrisy of church and state.
Enlightenment satire still hilarious and bitter.