Candide; Voltaire, Penguin Classics edition; 1986; Penguin Books.

Candide; Voltaire, Penguin Classics edition; 1986; Penguin Books Great vintage condition. Pre-owned. Candide is the story of a gentle man who, though pummeled and slapped in every direction by fate, clings desperately to the belief that he lives in "the best of all possible worlds." On the surface a witty, bantering tale, this eighteenth-century classic is actually a savage, satiric thrust at the philosophical optimism that proclaims that all disaster and human suffering is part of a benevolent cosmic plan.