Candide, Or, Optimism

1939

Special Collections PQ2082 C3 E5 1939

London: Nonesuch Press

This delightful illustration by the French artist Sylvain Sauvage (actually Félix Roy, 1888-1948, one time director of École Estienne), greatly enhances the text of Voltaire’s most famous novel, Candide. Published almost simultaneously in five countries in early 1759, the satire was promptly banned. The book is famous for its ultimate theme: ‘we must cultivate our garden’; in contrast to the Leibnizian optimism, taught to the protagonist, Candide as a young man, that ‘all is for the best’. Voltaire died on the 30th May 1778. In 1791, he was enshrined in the Panthéon in Paris that is now a resting place for the remains of many distinguished French citizens.