Candide and Other Stories

New Edition

Voltaire
Translated by Roger Pearson

Oxford World's Classics

352 pages | 196x129mm

978-0-19-953561-3 | Paperback | 17 April 2008

Price: £5.99

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This well-established selection of Voltaire's philosophical stories is now updated and expanded to include the verse tale What Pleases the Ladies
The most extensive one-volume selection currently available.
Revised introduction reflects recent critical debates and includes a new section on Voltaire's verse tales, increasingly seen as belonging with his prose tales.
Revised notes and updated bibliography.

New to this edition

A verse translation of Ce qui plaît aux dames' (What Pleases the Ladies), Voltaire's best verse tale.
Updated translations, revised introduction and notes, and updated bibliography.

'If this is the best of all possible worlds, then what must the others be like?'

Young Candide is tossed on a hilarious tide of misfortune, experiencing the full horror and injustice of this 'best of all possible worlds' - the Old and the New - before finally accepting that his old philosophy tutor Dr Pangloss has got it all wrong. There are no grounds for his daft theory of Optimism. Yet life goes on. We must cultivate our garden, for there is certainly room for improvement.

Candide is the most famous of Voltaire's 'philosophical tales', in which he combined witty improbabilities with the sanest of good sense. First published in 1759, it was an instant bestseller and has come to be regarded as one of the key texts of the Enlightenment. What Candide does for chivalric romance, the other tales in this selection - Micromegas, Zadig, The Ingenu, and The White Bull - do for science fiction, the Oriental tale, the sentimental novel, and the Old Testament. This new edition also includes a verse tale based on Chaucer's The Wife of Bath's Tale, in which we discover that most elusive of secrets: What Pleases the Ladies.
ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Readership: Readers and students of French literature, the Enlightenment, eighteenth-century philosophy and culture, Voltaire

The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.

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