#48 in Humour
Candide
- 144
- Pages
- about 2.5 h
- Reading time
- Series 2016 +3
- On screen
Affiliate link: buying through it supports BookRank at no extra cost to you.
About the book
Candide, ou l'Optimisme is a French satire written by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment, first published in 1759. The novella has been widely translated, with English versions titled Candidus: or, All for the Best (1759); Candide: or, The Optimist (1762); and Candide: Optimism (1947). A young man, Candide, lives a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise, being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism by his mentor, Professor Pangloss. This lifestyle is abruptly ended, followed by Candide's slow and painful disillusionment as he witnesses and experiences great hardships in the world. Voltaire concludes Candide with, if not rejecting Leibnizian optimism outright, advocating a deeply practical precept, "we must cultivate our garden", in lieu of the Leibnizian mantra of Pangloss, "all is for the best" in the "best of all possible worlds".
On screen
This book has been adapted for the screen 4 times — from 1960 to 2025.
- SeriesÊta Mundo Bom!IMDb
- FilmCandide, or the Optimist of the Twentieth CenturyIMDb
- FilmMondo candidoIMDb
- SeriesÊta Mundo Melhor!IMDb
Adaptation data: Wikidata · On screen →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.6 across 718 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 83% of the weight and the score stays at 7.6 — the Humour average of 7.8 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.0 | 88 | 12% |
| Hardcover | 7.5 | 630 | 88% |
Frequently asked
How long is Candide?
It has 144 pages — shorter than 90% of the ranked books in Humour.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Humour — with scores between 7.6 and 8.0, closest to this book.
