Back to the Future
Funny and interesting view of France mid 18th century.
If you buy one whopper of a tale there is another a paragraph away.
"...Lot, the best, the most loving father that ever was..."
The title of my review is a quote from "The White Bull," the last of the stories in this collection, and is a particularly funny example of Voltaire's wit and sarcasm for those that can catch on. You have to know your Bible stories, you see.
The stories included in this volume are:
1. Candide -- a tale of chivalric romance filled with comical tragedy
2. Micromegas -- an 18th century science-fiction story with a Sirian and Saturnian finding insignificant life on this insignificant planet
3. Zadig -- a sort of oriental tale like "The Thousand and One Nights"
4. What Pleases the Ladies -- a long risque poem which gives one a few different ideas on what pleases the ladies
5. The Ingenu -- a novella on the worldly education of a novice to civilization, and his frustrated love
6. The White Bull -- a sort of satire on the fancifulness of certain religious literature
Being Voltaire, I cannot recommend enough the careful reading of such tales for the entertainment of the irreverent mind.
Is Life Good?
Voltaire is a master saterist, not a comedian. As with all satire, it hslps if we understand the contemporary world in which the author writes, but Voltaire's skill raises Candide above this level of satirical writing. He is masterful in the use of comedy to poke fun at the customs, mores, and beliefs of his time and show us the silliness to shich theunenlightened mind can go in the pursuit of perfection in an imperfect world. As a commentator on human culture he is followed by Mark Twain. Not that Twain can match Voltaire in his skill, only in some of his perceptions. This is an "old" book by new world reckoning, but as a masterpiecce well worth the time and effort of exploaration it is a timeless masterpiece. I highly recommend it to both believer and non-believer.
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