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Candide
Events Surrounding the Writing Of Candide and the Resulting Change in Social Attitude
Voltaire wrote Candide in a very specific time defined by the major events that occurred and the resulting temperament and reaction of the general public. That reaction and overall thought is the characterizing force that inspired Voltaire's Candide, as Voltaire writes to it in a critical and satirical fashion. In terms of social thought, the time period in which Candide was written, the Enlightenment Era of the18th century, was defined by changing values, where new individuals such as Voltaire brought forth ideas that uprooted the socially common values of the Church and State5.
One such event in this time period that especially brought about a revolution in social thought was the Lisbon Earthquake of November, 1st 1755, which occurred on Saint's Day. The earthquake killed 60,000 people just in Lisbon2. The horrific aftermath sparked an obvious change in collective social thought, with the religious establishment attempting to spread a sense of optimism and positivity in the face of this devastating event. This optimism can also be interpreted as "Leibnizian Optimism," which promotes the idea that the current situation is "the best of all possible worlds"3.
Through "Candide," Voltaire responded to this with a sense of cynicism and sarcastic realism. Specifically, "since the earthquake could be explained by natural causes, Pope was right in affirming whatever is, is right. Voltaire insisted in reply that absolute evil exists in nature and that all religions, recognizing this truth, have sought to prove that the original benevolent scheme attributed to God has been altered"1. Voltaire challenged that status quo of social thought put forth by the Church and, subsequently, Leibnizian Optimism, as "Pope's scheme, according to Voltaire, obscured the fundamental truth of the pervasiveness of natural evil"1. In Candide, this piece of social context was reflected in the way Voltaire ironically implements the use of the faulty optimism put forth by the church. This is specifically seen in the character of Dr. Pangloss, who promotes the "best of all possible worlds" philosophy in all dire and horrific situations.
Literacy Rates and Reading Practices As mentioned before, there was a prominent sense of informed social thought in pre-Industrial 18th century Europe. In terms of reading and education, towns enjoyed high literacy rates and availability of primary and secondary institutions of higher learning, and the establishment and proliferation of the printing press solidified this. In rural areas, this was not the case, resulting in the idealogical effect taking place in urban and industrial areas that were greatly impacted by the earthquake8. Voltaire's Candide was widely published in Geneva, Paris, and Amsterdam in January of 1759, and it reached Britain a few years later. The effect was a common reading and studying of Voltaire throughout the majority of urban Europe4. In towns all across Europe in this time period, this access to reading lead to the remarkable spreading of thought and ideas. An example of this is the town of Haddington in Enlightenment-Era Scotland. Here, a large public library made all current books readily available to the townspeople, allowing for the quick sharing and proccessing of ideas6. This was the defining aspect of the Enlightenment, and, as mentioned above, Voltaire's work spread easily and widely in this climate of ideological revolution and literary progress. In regards to this and the overall reading practice of the time, "there was not just one institutionalized, professionalized practice but many diverse communities, composed of more or less academically trained philosophers"7. For this, it is obvious that Candide was written in a reading culture of high literacy and a large subsequent spread and dialogue of ideas and philosophies (in urban areas at least).
Images and Depictions of Reading and Storytelling in Candide An evident theme throughout Candide is the upfront and direct nature of the reality of the world around them. This is especially apparent in the depictions of storytelling, where stories, sometimes of extreme harshness and depth, are simply told in an upfront and blunt manner. One such depiction of storytelling in Candide comes when Pangloss tells Candide what has happened to the family from the beginning of the story: "'She is dead...' Candide fainted at this word; his friend recalled his senses with a little bad vinegar which he found by chance in the stable... 'she was ripped open by the Bulgarian soldiers, after having been violated by many...' At this discourse Candide fainted again" (7-8). Here, there is a very upfront, direct, and blunt depiction of gory information and a harsh story, which parallels how this book and its ideas were read and spread with such speed and openness. Another depiction occurs when Candide tells his story thus far to Cunegonde: " ...yet he gave her a most ingenuous account of everything that had befallen him since the moment of their separation. Cunegonde lifted up her eyes to heaven; shed tears upon hearing of the death of the good Anabaptist and of Pangloss; after which she spoke as follows to Candide, who did not lose a word and devoured her with her eyes" (16). Again, the story is told in an upfront and direct manner that secretes truthfulness, which is one of the main goals of Voltaire: to vouch for the truth of the reality and all of its honest horrors.
Dynes, Russell R. The Dialogue Between Voltaire And Rousseau On The Lisbon Earthquake: The Emergence Of A Social Science View. University of Delaware. http://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/435.
"The eighteenth century was a period of reworking traditional ideas on persistent issues. Traditional ideas were still being maintained by the Church and State, but those institutions were changing, and the basis of their powers were being eroded. There was a growing emphasis on the ability and capacity of Manto use reason, which would compete with historic institutional “prepackaged” answers. Experimentation anddiscussion of new ways of viewing and solving problems reached beyond what had been localized and institutionalanswers. Mobility and migration among European states began to create a “global” intellectual community centeredin France, Germany, and England with other political entities on the periphery. It was an expanding world, agrowing intellectual network in which ideas were created and sometimes discussed face to face, but often communicated by correspondence, manuscripts and books." How it was read
ALDRIDGE, ALFRED OWEN. Voltaire and the Century of Light. Princeton University Press, 1975. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt13x11qc.
"since the earthquake could be explained by natural causes, Pope was right in affirming whatever is, is right. Voltaire insisted in reply that absolute evil exists in nature and that all religions, recognizing this truth, have sought to prove that the original benevolent scheme attributed to God has been altered"1. Voltaire challenged that status quo of social thought put forth by the Church and, subsequently, Leibnizian Optimism, as "Pope's scheme, according to Voltaire, obscured the fundamental truth of the pervasiveness of natural evil"
"Lisbon Earthquake of 1755." Encyclopedia Britannica. Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica, 2002.
"series of earthquakes that occurred on the morning of Nov. 1, 1755, causing serious damage to the port city of Lisbon, Port., and killing an estimated 60,000 people in Lisbon alone. Violent shaking demolished large public buildings and about 12,000 dwellings. Because November 1 is All Saints’ Day, a large part of the population was attending mass at the moment the earthquake struck; the churches, unable to withstand the seismic shock, collapsed, killing or injuring thousands of worshipper"
Wilson, Catherine. "Leibnizian Optimism." The Journal of Philosophy 80, no. 11 (1983): 765-83. doi:10.2307/2026020.
"Leibniz's claim that 'this is the best of all possible worlds' has been associated since the mid-eighteenth century with the postures of Voltaire's Dr. Pangloss"
Barnes, Julian. "A Candid View of Candide." The Guardian. July 01, 2011. Accessed May 13, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jul/01/candide-voltaire-rereading-julian-barnes.
"All this makes Voltaire's Candide even more of an extraordinary case. It was written between July and December 1758 and published simultaneously in Geneva, Paris and Amsterdam in January 1759. That year no fewer than three English translations appeared, shortly followed by the early version that is now most often read, by Tobias Smollett. This formed part of a 25-volume edition of Voltaire's works "translated from the French with Notes by Dr Smollett and others" and published between 1761 and 1765. Even the British acknowledged Voltaire as Europe's most famous public intellectual, and his Candide as a prime example of literature as news. This philosophical tale may be described as an attack on Leibnitzian optimism – and, more broadly, on all prepackaged systems of thought and belief – a satire on churches and churchmen, and a pessimistic rumination on human nature and the problem of free will."
Journal of Scottish Historical Studies 28, no. 1 (2008). doi:10.3366/e1748538x08v28i1.
"This article examines a unique record in library and book history: the detailed lending record of a Scottish town library from the early eighteenth century through to the early nineteenth century... this was a free library, open to all the residents of the town of Haddington... not charging any fee to join or borrow books."
Mücke, Dorothea E. Von. The Practices of the Enlightenment: Aesthetics, Authorship, and the Public. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015.
"there was not just one institutionalized, professionalized practice but many diverse communities, composed of more or less academically trained philosophers"
HOUSTON, R. A. "Literacy, Education and the Culture of Print in Enlightenment Edinburgh." History 78, no. 254 (1993): 373-92. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24422219.
"Throughout pre-industrial Europe towns enjoyed higher literacy rates than the rural environment in which most people lived. Most institutions of secondary and higher education were found in urban settlements and it was there that printing presses were first established and then proliferated. The 'greenhouse' effect of towns and cities on intellectual and cultural development is well documented. Eighteenth-century Edinburgh is a prominent example of this characteristic: 'a hot-bed of genius' in the age of Enlightenment, according to Smollett's Humphrey Clinker.2 Scotland's capital and a town of some 60,000 inhabitants at the start of George Ill's reign in 1760, Edinburgh contained concentrations of features which made it a special cultural and intellectual environment. Extensive availability of education and high levels of literacy are examples. Edinburgh's university, one of five in contemporary Scotland, increased student numbers from roughly"
"Upon which Candide carried him to the Anabaptist's stable, and gave him a crust of bread. As soon, as Pangloss had refreshed himself a little... "She is dead..." Candide fainted at this word; his friend recalled his senses with a little bad vinegar which he found by chance in the stable... "she was ripped open by the Bulgarian soldiers, after having been violated by many..." At this discourse Candide fainted again" (7-8).
"Candide respectfully obeyed her, and though he was still in a surprise, though his voice was feeble and trembling, though his still pained him, yet he gave her a most ingenuous account of everything that had befallen him since the moment of their separation. Cunegonde lifted up her eyes to heaven; shed tears upon hearing of the death of the good Anabaptist and of Pangloss; after which she spoke as follows to CandiDE, who did not lose a word and devoured her with her eyes" (16).
Footnotes
1. ALDRIDGE, ALFRED OWEN. Voltaire and the Century of Light. Princeton University Press, 1975. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt13x11qc.
2. "Lisbon Earthquake of 1755." Encyclopedia Britannica. Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica, 2002.
3. Wilson, Catherine. "Leibnizian Optimism." The Journal of Philosophy 80, no. 11 (1983): 765-83. doi:10.2307/2026020.
4. Barnes, Julian. "A Candid View of Candide." The Guardian. July 01, 2011. Accessed May 13, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jul/01/candide-voltaire-rereading-julian-barnes.
5. Dynes, Russell Rowe. The Dialogue between Voltaire and Rousseau on the Lisbon Earthquake: The Emergence of a Social Science View. Newark, DE: University of Delaware, Disaster Research Center, 1999.
6. Journal of Scottish Historical Studies 28, no. 1 (2008). doi:10.3366/e1748538x08v28i1.
7. Mücke, Dorothea E. Von. The Practices of the Enlightenment: Aesthetics, Authorship, and the Public. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015.
8. HOUSTON, R. A. "Literacy, Education and the Culture of Print in Enlightenment Edinburgh." History 78, no. 254 (1993): 373-92. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24422219.