Candide, or Optimism (1759) was and is VoltaireÆs most popular philosophical novel, in part because of the wickedly clever way in which it satirizes the optimistic creed of Liebnitz and his followers û ôAll is for the best in the best of all possible worldsö. Voltaire, that keen voice of the Enlightenment and champion of the importance of rationality as a defense against the vices of the befuddled past, wrote Candide to show the many ways in which all was not for the best in the world of France at the end of its monarchical period û but did not necessarily have to remain that way. The moral of VoltaireÆs work û- that we must cultivate our garden û- might be better translated as ôWe must cultivate our garden because we can -û because we can make things better.ö That extended meaning is often ignored or diluted, perhaps because while VoltaireÆs readers in the agrarian 18th century would have known the value and effect of cultivation, readers in the industrial 21st century tend to see cultivation as a metaphor rather than as a form of actual, productive work.
The novella has always remained so well-read and beloved not simply because of the amusing quality of VoltaireÆs satire, however, but also because of two other important aspects. One of these is simply the elegance and eloquence of VoltaireÆs writing, a preciseness of and pleasure in wordplay that remains clear even in the English translations of his works. The other is the fundamental message of VoltaireÆs hero in this work: That work is far more effective than vain speculation, and that work can indeed save us. The moral of this novella is in many ways a presage not to the democracy that France would try to achieve so fitfully in the century following VoltaireÆs death, but to the much more radical notions of socialism of the following century. VoltaireÆs vision in this novella is in some essential ways an anti-Christian one, for he is arguing against the Christ...