Candide

Voltaire's fictional critique of Leibnizian optimism is as relevant, hilarious, touching and profound as it was when Arouet penned it in the midst of the eighteenth century. Voltaire's urbane knowledge and keen intuition were deftly intertwined here as he presented a blunt, brutal, painfully accurate depiction of an unkind world as it existed in his time, one that pummels the colorful cast of this exciting novella. As with almost all of Voltaire's satire, no infamy remains unexposed, and no hypocrisy unnamed. Bair's translation isn't the best that I've read of this work, but it's certainly adequate. He implements simple prose, sacrificing little of the wit of the original text. As a language of nuance, English can't be favorably compared to French, so translations like these are bound to be imperfect. Here, Bair balances refinement and comprehension with a slight preference for the latter, and the results are pleasing. The footnotes provided are sparse, but sufficient. The amusing, lusty, sharply-defined illustrations by Sheilah Beckett accompany the text quite well, too. They can't compare to the visuals of prior editions by the likes of Ghendt or Baquoy, but they're engaging enough. The foreword by Andre Marois is slightly less satisfactory. It provides a brief history of Voltaire's life and work and places the period of the book into a cohesive context, but Marois also engages in some absurd speculation. Most of this consists of a childish attempt to classify Voltaire as a humanist, based solely on the fact that he was humane. Never mind the man's racism and support of war as a means to keep order. He wept for the downtrodden, so he must have been a humanist! But this distasteful attempt at appropriation is brief and quickly forgotten as soon as one is midway through the first chapter of this brilliant little story. Ecrasez l'infame!

First 29 chapters were great and very captivating. The last was a bit disappointing :(

One of my favorite satire pieces of all time. 10/10 would read again.