Rare Books

"Candide Ou L'Optimisme" 1941 Voltaire (SOLD)

Voltaire

[193] pp.

Editions du Charme

1941

7 7/8" x 6"

Limited edition exemplaire No. 2511

Illustre D'Aquarelles Originales de Jylbert

VG

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Candide ou l'Optimisme is a philosophical tale by Voltaire published in Geneva in January 1759. It was reprinted twenty times during the author's lifetime, making it one of the greatest French-language literary successes. Only a month after its publication, six thousand copies had been sold, a considerable number for the time.

Supposedly translated from a work by Dr. Ralph (who, in reality, is only the pseudonym used by Voltaire), with the "additions found in the doctor's pocket", this work, ironic from the very first lines, leaves no doubt as to the identity of the author, who could only have been on the side of the philosophers.

Candide is also a coming-of-age story, the story of a journey that will transform its eponymous hero into a philosopher, a new kind of Telemachus.