V

Francois-Marie Arouet was born 325 years ago today.  He's better known as Voltaire.  It's unclear why he adopted the name, but it certainly became well known.  One of the top figures of the Enlightenment, he was incredibly prolific, writing hundreds and hundreds of books and essays.

He was a great advocate of freedom and human rights.  I suppose his most famous quote is "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." In his day this was probably a brave thing to say, and, alas, it's become brave yet again.

I don't really know his reputation in the French-speaking world, but it fascinates me how he's known in the English-speaking world.  His renown is based almost entirely on one short book. Sure, there are academics who have studied his life and his works, but the average reader knows Candide and little else.

Candide is a satire first published in 1759.  It follows a young, naïve hero through numerous adventures, going from one disaster to another.  The book makes fun of government and religion, and was denounced in its day. In fact, it was considered controversial well into the 20th century.

Candide notably mocks the philosophy of Leibniz, the German thinker who believed we live in the best of all possible worlds (and also created calculus).  This is generally called a philosophy of optimism--indeed, The Optimist is the subtitle of Candide--but it's never sounded that optimistic to me.  In fact, a philosophy that says this is as good as it gets sounds pretty depressing.

Students face a lot of classics with dread, but Candide is fun.  But I wonder if Francois-Marie would be happy to know it was for this that he'd be remembered.  He wrote so much, and a slim volume is what survives?  I like to think it would give him a good laugh.