{"product_id":"candide-or-optimism-9780812972016","title":"Candide: or, Optimism","description":"In this splendid new translation of Voltaire's satiric masterpiece, all the celebrated wit, irony, and trenchant social commentary of one of the great works of the Enlightenment is restored and refreshed. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eVoltaire may have cast a jaundiced eye on eighteenth-century Europe-a place that was definitely \u003ci\u003enot\u003c\/i\u003e the \"best of all possible worlds.\" But amid its decadent society, despotic rulers, civil and religious wars, and other ills, Voltaire found a mother lode of comic material. And this is why Peter Constantine's thoughtful translation is such a pleasure, presenting all the book's subtlety and ribald joys precisely as Voltaire had intended. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe globe-trotting misadventures of the youthful Candide; his tutor, Dr. Pangloss; Martin, and the exceptionally trouble-prone object of Candide's affections, Cun gonde, as they brave exile, destitution, cannibals, and numerous deprivation, provoke both belly laughs and deep contemplation about the roles of hope and suffering in human life. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe transformation of Candide's outlook from panglossian optimism to realism neatly lays out Voltaire's philosophy-that even in Utopia, life is less about happiness than survival-but not before providing us with one of literature's great and rare pleasures.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eVoltaire (Fran?ois-Marie Arouet)\u003c\/b\u003e (1694--1778) was one of the key thinkers of the European Enlightenment. Of his many works, \u003ci\u003eCandide\u003c\/i\u003e remains the most popular. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003ePeter Constantine\u003c\/b\u003e was awarded the 1998 PEN Translation Award for \u003ci\u003eSix Early Stories \u003c\/i\u003eby Thomas Mann and the 1999 National Translation Award for \u003ci\u003eThe Undiscovered Chekhov: Forty-three New Stories.\u003c\/i\u003e Widely acclaimed for his recent translation of the complete works of Isaac Babel, he also translated Gogol's \u003ci\u003eTaras Bulba\u003c\/i\u003e and Tolstoy's \u003ci\u003eThe Cossacks \u003c\/i\u003efor the Modern Library. His translations of fiction and poetry have appeared in many publications, including \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker, Harper's, \u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eParis Review. \u003c\/i\u003eHe lives in New York City.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Random House Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50872868077842,"sku":"9780812972016","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_4814c25f-57e6-41df-b8cd-4a00760c0801.jpg?v=1737913547","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/candide-or-optimism-9780812972016","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}