Voltaire's "Candide" is a satirical novella that critiques philosophical optimism through the misadventures of its naive protagonist. It remains a foundational work of the Enlightenment, celebrated for its wit and enduring social commentary.
Sources for Voltaire — Candide, or Optimism
Voltaire — Candide, or Optimism in Satire
Held in the Satire chamber of the Babel Nexus Index.
- Anonymous (Egypt) — The Satire of the Trades (The Instruction of Kheti) (c. 1900 BCE)
- Aristophanes — The Birds (c. 414 BCE)
- Aristophanes — The Clouds (c. 423 BCE)
- Lucian of Samosata — A True History (Verae Historiae) (c. 175 CE)
- Horace — Satires, Epistles, and the Art of Poetry (c. 35 BCE)
- François Rabelais — Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532)
- Desiderius Erasmus — The Praise of Folly (1511)
- Thomas More — Utopia (1516)
- Jonathan Swift — Gulliver's Travels (1726)
- Mark Twain — A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889)
- Ambrose Bierce — The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
- Oscar Wilde — The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)