Voltaire · 1759 · global

Voltaire's savage 1759 satire on optimism. Schooled by Pangloss to believe that all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds, the naive Candide is flung across Europe and the Americas through war, earthquake, shipwreck, and betrayal - a grand tour of human folly that ends, wearily, in a small garden.

1. 1
   Westphalia

   Candide is raised in the Baron's castle, taught by Pangloss that all is for the best - until a stolen kiss from Cunegonde gets him thrown out into the snow.

2. 2
   Holland

   Fleeing the war, Candide reaches Holland, where the kindly Anabaptist Jacques takes him in and he finds Pangloss again, now a diseased beggar.

3. 3
   Lisbon

   Their ship goes down off Lisbon just as the great earthquake strikes; in the auto-da-fe that follows, Pangloss is hanged and Candide flogged.

4. 4
   Cadiz

   Reunited with Cunegonde, Candide is given a captaincy at Cadiz and embarks for the New World to fight a colonial war.

5. 5
   Buenos Aires

   In Buenos Aires the governor covets Cunegonde, and Candide - now wanted for a killing - flees inland with his valet Cacambo.

6. 6
   Paraguay

   Among the Jesuits of Paraguay he finds Cunegonde's brother, the young Baron, commanding the missions - and runs him through in a quarrel.

7. 7
   El Dorado

   Lost in the wilderness, the pair stumble into El Dorado, the hidden city of gold, and leave laden with jewels its people treat as worthless dust.

8. 8
   Suriname

   In Suriname a mutilated slave shows Candide the real price of his sugar, and a Dutch trader cheats him of most of his fortune.

9. 9
   Bordeaux

   Candide lands back in Europe at Bordeaux, now travelling with the gloomy scholar Martin.

10. 10
    Paris

    In Paris he is fleeced by sharpers and false friends - Voltaire's portrait of a vain and cynical society.

11. 11
    Portsmouth

    Bound for Venice, the ship coasts along England to Portsmouth, where a crowd watches an admiral shot on his own quarterdeck - executed, Candide is told, to encourage a little more daring in the others. Horrified, he refuses to land and pays to sail straight on.

12. 12
    Venice

    At the Venice carnival he dines among six deposed kings, but still finds no trace of Cunegonde.

13. 13
    Constantinople

    Near Constantinople he finds Pangloss and the Baron alive at the galley oars; reunited at last with the now-plain Cunegonde, he settles them all on a small farm, having concluded that the only sane answer to a broken world is to cultivate one's own garden.