Voltaire’s Candide

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Voltaire’s novel Candide. First published in 1759, the novel follows the adventures of a young man, Candide, and his mentor, the philosopher Pangloss. Candide was written in the aftermath of a major earthquake in Lisbon and the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War, events which caused such human suffering that they shook many people’s faith in a benevolent God. Voltaire’s masterpiece piles ridicule on Optimism, the fashionable philosophical belief that such disasters are part of God’s plan for humanity - that ‘all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds’.Often uproariously funny, the novel is a biting satire whose other targets include bad literature, extremist religion and the vanity of kings and politicians. It captivated contemporary readers and has proved one of French literature’s most enduring classics.

→ Play on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• David Wootton 16 episodes
  Anniversary Professor of History at the University of York
• Nicholas Cronk No other episodes
  Professor of French Literature and Director of the Voltaire Foundation at the University of Oxford
• Caroline Warman 4 episodes
  Lecturer in French and Fellow of Jesus College at the University of Oxford

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Programme ID: b01gvthf

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01gvthf

Auto-category: 843 (French fiction)