Candide
by Voltaire
Table of Contents
Plot Summary
Candide is an attractive, naïve young man who lives in a small German town
called Westphalia. He is a member of the Baron of Thunder-ten-tronckh’s household,
which he believes is the most magnificent place in the world. The family tutor, Doctor
Pangloss, teaches the Baron’s son and Candide a philosophy of optimism. Pangloss’s
philosophy states that all is for the best and that this is best of all possible worlds.
Candide believes that Pangloss is a great philosopher and, at first, accepts the tutor’s
ideas without question. When Candide is violently evicted from the castle for sharing
a kiss with the Baron’s daughter, the lovely Miss Cunegonde, he is forced to endure
a series of hardships which satirically call into question the validity of philosophical
optimism.
Soon after his expulsion from the castle, Candide is conscripted into the army of
the Bulgarian king, where he endures daily beatings on his way to becoming a soldier.
After being nearly flogged to death for desertion, Candide barely survives a bloody
battle and then travels through several horrifically war-torn villages. To escape the
devastation of war, Candide travels to Holland, where he is insulted and denied food
by people preaching Christianity. An Anabaptist takes pity on Candide and gives him a
job. Soon afterward, Candide encounters his former professor, Pangloss, in the street.
The philosopher is begging and dressed in rags, half his face eaten away by syphilis.
Pangloss explains that shortly after Candide’s exile the Baron’s castle was taken by...
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