Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
2,217 global ratings
5 star
68%
4 star
16%
3 star
9%
2 star
2%
1 star
5%
How are ratings calculated?
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Review this product

Reviews with images

Customer image
Customer image
Customer image
Customer image
See all customer images
Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars he takes great pains to ridicule the writings of both Milton and ...
Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2017
Verified Purchase
Voltaire had an interesting and sometimes tumultuous relation with "The Church" and religious thought of his time. In Candide, he takes great pains to ridicule the writings of both Milton and Alexander Pope, more specifically the latter in An Essay on Man, in which both writers attempt to "vindicate the ways of God to man". To understand this, or better, to have read these writings will further illuminate what Voltaire is attempting in Candide.
Candide is the protagonist and is a seemingly good-hearted but rather simple fellow whose mentor, Pangloss, teaches him that no matter what happens it is always for the best. As a note, pay attention to each of the main characters names as they seem to me to have a descriptive quality to them, e.g. Pan, meaning "all" and gloss from the Greek glossa, meaning tongue, to get a name that roughly means "all talk".
The story begins with Candide and his love interest being suddenly separated and the events of his life from there. What follows in the story is a series of horrible events mixed with some virtuous ones that Pangloss continuously explains to Candide that whatever happens is for the best.
Even if you have no philosophical interest, the book is both funny and sad, entertaining yet thought provoking with a couple of memorable passages. I consider it a pretty good read and, as a bonus, a quick one.
Read more
Reinold F.
5.0 out of 5 stars Delightfully rebellious. (AmazonClassics Edition)
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2020
Verified Purchase
Literature or philosophy? it tells a great story but clearly it goes beyond or aside satire, it tells philosophic ideas but in order to dismantle them. It is rather a manifiesto against the mad resignation to believe this world the best possible instead of working it till achieving a really good world.

I deem "Candide" as one of the best books from France, which is to say a lot. Few books leave a life lasting impact as this seemingly superficial book. And if not, if you read it as literature, is quite entertaining. Usually utopias are hateful parodies to attack the country of the resentful writer but devoid of alternatives of solutions. In "Candide" Voltaire instead genuinely have a rich imagination to build the secret El Dorado of the Incas. I have walked Machu Picchu and I felt the Incas of Voltaire wouldn't be our of place in that marvelous city. Candide is... well, candide :D his odyssey will shatter his simple view of the world. It could shatter yours too, an excellent reading.

The AmazonClassics edition is good but not perfect. It has no errors, nor mistakes, is comfortable to read; but the translation is an old one from the public domain. A good translation but it adds an unnecessary introduction; besides is not clear the year of publication and number of edition.
Read more
R. Glueck
5.0 out of 5 stars Frolicsome and Feisty!
Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2016
Verified Purchase
I first saw the musical adaptation of "Candide" on Broadway, in the 1970's, and loved it. I decided to do it justice by reading Voltaire's original novel, and lo! The book has an entire story well beyond the musical adaptation! I found it to be not only instructive, nut enlightening, with a message that applies to the modern world as well. It is funny, pitiful, and a fast read, worthy of any educated individual, especially in our senior years.
Recommended.
Read more
Twostory
2.0 out of 5 stars Not for me
Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2020
Verified Purchase
I know it's a "Classic" but I don't get it. Lots of traveling around in a dark period of time in the world. Repetitive violence and misdeeds towards mankind. Much murder and abuse of women and children. So much so It was boring to me. Events happened too fast. Sometimes too much detail - sometimes too little. I don't understand the fascination and reputation this book gets. I gave up halfway through.
Read more
SashaSS
VINE VOICE
5.0 out of 5 stars Finally - an easy read classic
Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2018
Verified Purchase
Nice illustrated copy. Great, entertaining book.
This is a departure for me. I usually read horror, thriller, mystery, sci-fi. You know- exciting books with lots of action.
I have not read most of the classics. It seems so many of them are just boring. (I made it through Fountainhead just waiting for something - anything- to happen). I have made it a mission to keep trying.
I like that this book kept moving right along at a fast pace for the most part. Bad things happen, funny things happen and more than one surprise. It holds up remarkably well for it's age.I even learned some history.
Read more
See all reviews

Top reviews from other countries

Al
5.0 out of 5 stars Outrageous, shocking, scandalous....
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 15, 2017
Verified Purchase
....were, I am sure, words used about "Candide" when it was first published.
Candide is a naïve, gullible, quixotic innocent, who is launched on a fantastical journey around Europe, South America and returning to the Eastern Mediterranean, in his search for his true love, Cunegonde, and answers to the philosophical questions raised by his mentor, Pangloss.
He suffers disaster after disaster and is mistreated, cheated and betrayed time after time but just keeps bouncing back.
The story is written in a light, humorous style, with echoes of Gabriel García Marquez's magic realism; with an overlying cynicism it is used to lampoon and satirise the venality of the establishment, particularly the Roman Catholic Church.
It is an easy and very good read and it just flows along; it is hard to imagine that it was written more than 250 years ago, although at least some of the credit for this may be down to skilful translating and editing.
One passage really caught my eye - writing in 1759, Voltaire has Martin saying: "It is said [of] Venice....that strangers meet with a very good reception if they have a good deal of money." - just a few weeks ago, in late 2017, in response to a Brit who complained about being stuffed with a bill for EUR 526 for lunch for him and his parents, Luigi Brugnaro, the Mayor of Venice, called him a cheapskate and said: "If you come to Venice, you need to shell out a bit. You’re welcome, but you need to spend.” - plus ça change....
Read more
Book Bonkers
3.0 out of 5 stars A French Swift, a good read!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 25, 2017
Verified Purchase
"Those who make you believe absurdities can also make you commit atrocities". Voltaire said that and his dictum seems to run to the core of Pangloss's optimistic belief in this, "the best of all possible worlds." Candide's ingenuousness turns him into a flimsy protagonist at times and, like the raging torrent that rushes him down a river outside El Dorado, he is simply at the effete end of a flawed quietism. Voltaire exposes Pangloss's all-smiles view of the world when he justifies the drowning of the monk Jacques off Portugal on the grounds that the sea was made for that purpose. The relationship between Martin and Candide is based on often irate debate and difficult self-questioning, something Voltaire adopted in his diatribes against all forms of religious propaganda and corrupt clericalism. Something of a fairy tale here, but with a robust, subversive challenge to power freaks everywhere.
Read more
SueKich
3.0 out of 5 stars Candide: A glass-half-full kind of a guy.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 18, 2018
Verified Purchase
So. One finally catches up with Candide, the 84-page novella dashed off by Voltaire in three days and recognised as one of the most influential books ever written. It is the story of a young man who is persuaded of the doctrine of optimism by his mentor Professor Pangloss: “All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds”.

This is a strange dark fairy tale riddled with allegory and overburdened with an exaggerated, almost cartoonish brutality. Also cartoon-like is the resurrection of bumped-off characters, however welcome their return. (I’m looking at you, Pangloss.) Less welcome was the undercurrent of antisemitism I detected in certain parts of this story. (Et tu, Voltaire?)

It is only really possible to understand Voltaire’s great work as a satire of its times thanks to the rather odd but undoubtedly helpful footnotes. (I am referring to the Amazon Classics edition with Philip Littell’s introduction - one of the most bizarre pieces of writing I have ever read. Or, to be more precise, skipped.)

I close with my favourite quote: “Fools admire everything in an author of reputation. For my part, I read only to please myself. I like only that which serves my purpose.” Quite so. And now the sun has come out and I must cultivate my garden.
Read more
Dr. Alastair M. D. Gemmell
1.0 out of 5 stars A very poor translation of the original.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 18, 2019
Verified Purchase
This Kindle version of Candide is very disappointing in the translation, which seems to have been done from the original French solely through the medium of an automated translation system, and has not bee checked or edited since then. Much of the text is in consequence gibberish, often using modern-day americanisms such as 'ebook', 'motorway', 'U.S.of A.' and 'guys' among many others - certainly terms which were not in contemporary English usage in Voltaire's time! Other phrases require careful study in order to make sense of what is otherwise gibberish e.g. 'My pricey Martin..' should presumably be 'My dear Martin..' and so on.
Read more
Pirie Reads
3.0 out of 5 stars Candide by Voltaire
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 28, 2020
Verified Purchase
This is an adventure story with terrifying and shocking atrocities.

The Baron chucks Candide out of his home after he catches him kissing his daughter. Candide ends up in the army but manages to escape and goes to Holland. The adventure continues as he travels to Lisbon, Buenos Aires, Eldorado, Paris, Venice and Constantinople. He gets flogged, robbed and commits murder.

The story is too overwhelming for me. So many horrible things happen, it's exhausting. However, it's a gripping journey and not short of excitement and adventure. It has philosophical aspects to it but that goes over my head. I am just interested in a good story.

It’s a quick read and you could read it in one sitting.

In conclusion I am giving it 3 stars for lots of excitement but too much brutality.
Read more
See all reviews