Candide

by François-Marie Arouet, also known as Voltaire

1694 - 1778

Voltaire, the pen name for Francois-Marie Arouet, was born in Paris on November 21, 1694. He was educated at the Jesuit College in Paris and wished to become a writer. His father, however, wanted him to study the law. After a scandal and a threat by his father to disinherit him, the young man acquiesced to his father's demands. Nonetheless, he continued in his writing. He used wit and satire in his oblique attacks on intolerance and fanaticism during the French Enlightenment. He spent a year in the Bastille in 1717, accused of penning two poems critical of the Regent of France. When his father died in 1722, Voltaire was able to control his own actions. His works continued to make him enemies, and he was exiled to England from 1726 to 1729. He spent several years in the 1750's at the court of Frederick the Great, during which time he wrote Candide. In his lifetime he produced some 80 volumes of writings. His influence on the thought of the 18th century lead some historians to refer to that century as the "Age of Voltaire."

BACKGROUND

The eighteenth century was a time of new ideas and perspectives. The European intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment changed the way man viewed his world. Reason, not spirituality or intuition, was the road to understanding the world in which he lived. Isaac Newton introduced the notion that the universe was governed by set and discoverable laws. This concept undermined the faith in a personal God. Tolerance of varying religious beliefs was advocated by philosophers such as Voltaire. Churches should not interfere with scientific research. In politics the authoritarian state as exemplified by such absolute monarchs as Louis IV of France came into disrepute. By the end of the 1700's the idea of self-government had resulted in reform in England and revolution in France and America. Europe moved from an agrarian economy to an industrial one. At the close of this century the world had changed dramatically as the advances in science, political democracy, and religious freedom swept away the last vestiges of the Middle Ages. Now the belief that human history was a record of general progress and that the condition of mankind would only get better with each succeeding generation fostered a halo of optimism.

THE STORY

The plot of Candide is complex and ever changing. Candide, the illegitimate nephew of Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh, learns from the tutor Pangloss that this world is "the best of all possible worlds." Soon afterward, he is expelled from the baron's home because of his love for the baron's daughter, Cunégonde. Through war, earthquakes, heartbreak, and the Spanish Inquisition, Candide continues to pursue true love and happiness.

THEMES TO CONSIDER:

Comic invention; loyalty; utopia; satire; war as play; treatment of garden; evil; religion; optimism.

BOOKS

You will need a library card to access databases from home and to place a hold on library books. Search the Lone Star College System library catalog for Voltaire, Candide, Leibnitz philosophy.

Librarian Talk . . .About Books!

Books offer helpful information about historical background, settings, and authors. Literary criticism may be compiled in a book. The catalog is online at Kingwood College Library Catalog. If you want criticism of the novel itself, try the search words, Candide and criticism.

Electronic books, or eBooks, are available at NetLibrary. You will need a library card barcode number to read eBooks from off-campus.
Apply online for a library card (for Distance Learning students). For quicker results, after you submit the application, call the circulation desk at 281-312-1691 and ask them to process it. Use your card to:

Reference Books

REF CB411.S8 Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture. An annual publication indexed in MLA International Bibliography. There are many articles about Voltaire.
REF PN56.U8 S66 Encyclopedia of Utopian Literature. The longing for "the good place" is a literary theme treated here in depth.
REF PN86 L53 Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800. Contains exerpts from critical essays in books and journals.
REF PN523.M29 Magill's Survey of World Literature. Coverage of Voltaire and his writing style and characterization.
REF N3385 .N68 Novels for Students. See volume 7 for an overview of Candide's themes, characters, plot, and excerpts from criticism on the novel.
PQ2122.R48 Voltaire. Critical essays on Voltaire's works.
REF PN523.W67 World Literature Criticism 1500 to the Present. Exerpts from critics and biographers. There is even a book review of Candide from the time of the original publication, 1759.

Other historical sources:

PN164.A85. The Atlas of Literature. A short, but good study of Voltaire and others of his time.
BR470 .B97 Religion and the Enlightenment.
Poem on the Lisbon Disaster (from Toleration and Other Essays, Online Library of Liberty)

JOURNAL ARTICLES

Librarian Talk . . . About Finding Journal Articles!

Electronic databases are purchased by the libraries for your research use. To find articles in newspapers and journals, letters, reference books, illustrations, photographs and more, use your updated library card to login to the following databases. If you find an interesting article that is not full-text, you may request it through inter-library loan (I.L.L.) Contact the librarian if you need help getting an article.

There is some overlap of articles in the databases, but all are excellent sources of information for research. We encourage you to use more than one.

HINT: For a full list of article databases, go to http://kclibrary.lonestar.edu/db-subj.html and use your library card for login.

Literature Resource Center: Full text articles from reference books and Twayne's Masterworks books. It also has links to scholarly journal articles and appropriate Internet sites. Link from within this site to MLA International Bibliography, the premier index to literature journals and publications (very limited full text in MLA).
JSTOR Arts & Sciences: Search or browse the complete back issues for journals in literature, economics, history, social sciences, science and mathematics. The most current issue available is determined by publisher agreements and varies.
Project MUSE: Search and browse the full text of scholarly journal articles in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
Academic Search Complete: Although this database has more limited coverage, many of the articles are full text. Limit to "Peer Reviewed" for articles in scholarly journals.
Proquest Research Library: Collection of journal, newspaper, and magazine articles. Limit to "Scholarly journals, including peer reviewed" for scholarly journals.

INTERNET

Librarian Talk . . . About the Internet!

The internet will be a wonderful source of original documents. Browse the sites we have suggested below. Remember, you do want to find reputable sites. Look at:

Accuracy - The information should be researched and show proof that it has been.
Source - Who wrote the information? Look at the domain:. .edu .gov. org .net are valid research sources.
Authority - What are the author's credentials? (Don't quote from another college freshman's paper.)
Coverage - Does the page have the information you need for your research?
Objectivity - If a work is biased, use it - just make sure your professor knows YOU know. And offer both sides of issues, where applicable.

Online Text from Literature.org: the online literature library.
E-Texts from the Online Library of Liberty includes links to text for Candide, Philosophical Dictionary, selections from The Works of Voltaire and more.
"Voltaire & Frederick the Great," from Books and Characters, French and English by Lytton Strachey, 1915.
Five Biographies of Voltaire. E-text biographies from five different authors, dating back to 1929.

GETTING HELP FOR YOUR ASSIGNMENT

Citing Sources Using the Library MLA Style Guide | Kingwood College library guide. Examples of both paper and electronic citations.

Avoiding Plagiarism | Excellent information and guide on how to avoid plagiarism from the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University.

University of Texas Copyright Crash Course | This helpful guide on copyright is suggested by Lone Star College-Kingwood Teaching and Learning Center.

Learning Center | Check our hours for in-house tutoring.

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Page by Claire Gunnels and Bettye Sutton, Librarians, 1999.

Updated 07/2008 C. Gillis