Never in my life have I read such an infuriatingly hilarious book as Candide. I am not alone in my grievances. Voltaire’s novel is so depressingly funny because it makes a mockery of the Enlightenment philosophy of Optimism. In fact, Candide literally means optimism. Ever single, possible horror this world has is displayed prominently in this short, witty, and surprisingly articulate book.

The story focuses on Candide, a young German man, who lives in a castle under the protection of a Baron. This Baron employs a philosopher named Pangloss who preaches that this is the best of all possible worlds (optimism.) The Baron has a young daughter named Cunegonde, who Candide falls in love with. This is where things go downhill very quickly. Candide is kicked out of the castle and is subjected to such a rapid procession of horrors and losses that would make most people give up the will to live. However, Candide constantly beckons back to his old teacher Pangloss’ idea that this is the best of all possible words.

The things talked about in this novel should not be funny; laughing at them should make any reader feel guilty. Yet, time and time again, I had to pause while reading this to quell a smirk or laughter at heinous acts of Providence. Rapes, wars, tortures, cannibalism, fires, earthquakes, theft, etc. are all discussed as naturally as the sun rising in the East. I was thrust onwards, by Candide’s eternal optimism to keep reading.

The eventual conclusion to the novel, which does not spoil the text, is that Candide finally finds the best possible world for himself in his work and in cultivating his garden.

Critics have tried for years to figure out what Voltaire was trying to prove by writing this book. Most argued that it was trying to solve mankind’s ultimate question: why an omniscient, omnipotent, benevolent God made a world with a great deal of evil in it? I think this misses the point of what Voltaire was trying to expound. Voltaire was himself a figure of the Enlightenment who hated organized religions of all creeds and flavors.

When the conversation happening to turn into this channel [the clergy], one person said, “If you subtract pride from priests, nothing will remain.” [Voltaire replied,] “Then, Sir, you consider gluttony nothing?” (A Letter from John Moore)

Most of Voltaire’s followers thus took this book to be a denouncement of all religion and benevolent gods. However, I think this simplifies the argument too much that we lose Voltaire’s entire premise. Through the continuous displays of horror and evil, Candide ultimately remains optimistic. In the face of criticism from every man he ever meets, except for dear Pangloss and a hapless soul named Jacques who drowned, Candide believed “all is well.”

Voltaire proved a point that has been talked about by such great minds as Shakespeare, Aurelius, Frankl, and more: that there is no such thing as good or bad but thinking makes it so. This is stoic philosophy at its core, yet no critic seems to come to this conclusion. Good and evil come from the same source in Voltaire’s mind, and it is only your opinion of the event that causes the distinction. Even through all the tragedies of both Candide and Voltaire’s life, he never gave up hope for the goodness of man. Because he believed it so.

We are the creators of our own circumstance, whatever happens to us will happen and there is nothing we can do to stop it. How we react to these moments of change and chaos determine how we live our lives. So live it well, with the knowledge that nothing can hurt you unless you allow it to. No amount of savagery or fate can take the spirit of optimism from your soul, so that you can overcome any obstacle.

Read this book for the wittiness that transcends centuries. Read this book to learn from one of the greatest figures of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution (of which he died before its beginning.) Read this book to laugh at the face of an evil god, and realize you are laughing at yourself. Read this book to realize your life is not that bad. Read this book to help cultivate the garden of your mind.

Candide.