Jon Nakapalau's Reviews > Candide

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Candide
by

Voltaire,

Lowell Bair (Translator),

André Maurois (Introduction),

Sheilah Beckett (Illustrator)

Jon Nakapalau's review

Aug 24, 2016

really liked it

bookshelves: classics, philosophy

'Panglossianism' fails to take into account that the 'best of all possible worlds' may not be the best state of existence for everyone living in that world. The question of what makes the world 'best' and for whom that 'bestness' is reserved seems to me to be the core question of this book. Happy to have added this to my 'classics shelf'.

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Quotes Jon Liked

“Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable. For my part I read only to please myself and like only what suits my taste.”
― Voltaire, Candide

1274 likes

“Work keeps at bay three great evils: boredom, vice, and need.”
― Voltaire, Candide

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Reading Progress

April 13, 1990 – Started Reading

May 12, 1990 – Finished Reading

August 24, 2016 – Shelved

August 24, 2016 – Shelved as: classics

August 24, 2016 – Shelved as: philosophy

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message 1: by Thomas (new)

Sep 19, 2021 08:24AM

Amazing review Jon. I realise it’s been a while, but it popped up on my feed. No matter the number of words, I always respect a review with words and I’ll be more interested to read the 3 or 4 ones. “I hated it”(aka ‘1’) or “I thought it was the best thing ever committed to paper” (along with 95 % of all I ever read) is much less interesting.

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message 2: by Jon (new) - rated it 4 stars

Sep 19, 2021 11:26AM