Candide, Zadig, and Selected Stories

Voltaire, France's most distinguished man of letters, derided the bureaucracies of his day with savage contempt and entertained readers, creating exotic panoramas in his satirical stories, sixteen of which are presented in this volume. This indispensable collection features the author's masterpiece, Candide. Candide parodies the classic, romantic coming-of-age story, with the naïve, ever-optimistic title character confronting the evils of the real world. His forbidden love of a baron's daughter causes Candide to be evicted from his home and sheltered life into a desolate 16th-century Europe--where the strong prey on the weak and misery abounds in the heart of humanity. With Candide and the other stories in this collection, the master of social commentary dissects science and spiritual faith, ethics and legal systems, love and human vanity. Candide * Zadig * Micromegas * The World as It Is * Memnon * Bababec and the Fakirs * History of Scarmentado's Travels * Plato's Dream * Account of the Sickness, Confession, Death, and Apparition of the Jesuit Berthier * Story of a Good Brahman * Jeannot and Colin * An Indian Adventure * Ingenuous * The One-Eyed Porter * Memory's Adventure * Count Chesterfield's Ears and Chaplain Goudman