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Zadig and Selected Stories With a New Afterword by Thaisa Frank $4.95 U.S. $5.50 CAN. GEO The career of Francois Marie Arouet (who later adopted the name Voltaire) (1694-1778) was marked by success in the most prestigious literary genres, as well as in sig¬ nificant historical, philosophical, and scientific works. He often promoted controversial ideas, challenging the tem¬ poral power of the Church and criticizing outmoded practices. Frequent clashes with government authorities led him into exile on several occasions and, in 1750, en¬ couraged him to accept an invitation from Frederick the Great to join the Prussian court. Disillusioned by his contact with the “philosopher king,” Voltaire sought ref¬ uge near Geneva, where he composed his greatest philo¬ sophical tales, including Candide (1759), and produced numerous combative philosophical works, like the Philo¬ sophical Dictionary (1764). Shortly after a triumphal re¬ turn to Paris, Voltaire died, widely recognized by his contemporaries as the greatest writer of the age. John Iverson is assistant professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Whitman College; he taught previously at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He serves as vice president of the Voltaire Society of America and has pub¬ lished a number of essays on Voltaire and other aspects of the French eighteenth century, including the Encyclo¬ pedic, Montesquieu, and Madame du Chatelet. Thaisa Frank’s two most recent story collections, Sleep¬ ing in Velvet and A Brief History of Camouflage, were regional bestsellers and nominated for the Bay Area Book Reviewer’s Association Award. Her work has also appeared in numerous anthologies in the U.S. and Europe. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780451531155 VOLTAIRE CANDIDE, ZADIG AND SELECTED STORIES (» TRANSLATED BY Daniel M. Frame WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY John Iverson AND A NEW AFTERWORD BY Thaisa Frank SIGNET CLASSICS SIGNET CLASSICS Published by New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196. South Africa Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Published by Signet Classics, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. First Signet Classics Printing, May 1961 First Signet Classics Printing (Frank Afterword), January 2009 10 987654321 Copyright © Donald M. Frame, 1961 Introduction copyright © John Iverson, 2001 Afterword copyright © Thaisa Frank, 2009 All rights reserved REGISTERED TRADEMARK- MARCA REGISTRADA Printed in the United States of America Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval sys¬ tem, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. 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CONTENTS vii INTRODUCTION Candide [1759] 1 Zadig [1747] 97 Micromegas [1752] 174 The World as It Is [1748] 195 Memnon [1749] 212 Bababec and the Fakirs [1750] 218 History of Scarmentado’s Travels [1756] 221 Plato’s Dream [1756] 230 Account of the Sickness, Confession, Death, and Apparition of the Jesuit Berthier [1759] 233 Story of a Good Brahman [1761] 246 Jeannot and Colin [1764] 249 An Indian Adventure [1766] 259 Ingenuous [1767] 262 The One-Eyed Porter [1774] 331 Memory’s Adventure [1775] 337 Count Chesterfield’s Ears and Chaplain Goudman [1775] 341 360 NOTES AND GLOSSARY 366 AFTERWORD 375 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 1/ INTRODUCTION V Candide is quite probably the most cele¬ oltaire’S brated work of eighteenth-century French literature. In this respect, modern opinion replicates the enthusias¬ tic reception of the tale when it was first published in 1759. At that time, Candide appeared in at least seven¬ teen different editions, reaching estimated sales of 20,000 copies in the space of one year—remarkably high figures for the period. Voltaire’s contemporaries responded im¬ mediately to the tale’s brilliant humor and satirical verve. Lines like “Let’s eat Jesuit, let’s eat Jesuit!” were gleefully repeated in the streets of Paris. In our own time, multiple factors indicate that the work continues to reach a wide audience, not only in France but around the globe—theatrical and musical adaptations, scores of illustrated editions, translations into dozens of languages, inclusion on reading lists, and frequent quotations of the tale’s conclusion, “We must cultivate our garden.” The lasting success of Candide does not, however, mean that its message is entirely clear nor that it has met with universal approval. At the time of its initial publication, it created sharp divisions of opinion, scan¬ dalizing some readers while delighting others. In our own time, the tale is less likely to cause dissent and create calls for censorship—though the latter still occur with disturbing frequency—yet it continues to spur de¬ bate concerning its literary merit and philosophical im¬ port. Even casual readers of the text must ask themselves whether the acknowledgment that this is not, in fact, the “best of all possible worlds” leaves us any options for constructive engagement in the imperfect world that is ours. Candide thus retains great vitality and challenges us in the twenty-first century in many of the same ways it challenged and provoked readers in eighteenth-century France. Yet there are a great many differences between the reading of this tale now and the way it may have vii INTRODUCTION Vlll been read some 240 years ago. The types of works we commonly read today and the expectations with which we read them have changed considerably. In the case of Candide, in particular, eighteenth-century readers would have immediately identified the work as a peculiarly Voltairean one in terms of both form and content. For this reason, and if we wish to approach Candide in some¬ thing like the spirit in which it was written, we must consider more broadly the career of its creator and the privileged position his “philosophical tales” occupy within his vast opus. By the mid-1700s, Voltaire was commonly recognized as the greatest writer of his time. In part, this position was the fruit of a career quite typical of the seventeenth century and Old Regime France. Born in 1694, educated by the Jesuits, Francis Marie Arouet (Voltaire was the name he adopted when he was twenty-four) distin¬ guished himself as a poet and playwright at a relatively young age. He wrote a French national epic poem, the Henriade (1723), and scored a number of hits at the leading Parisian theater, the Comedie Fran9aise. He also participated in the brilliant social life that characterized the age, earning a reputation as a scintillating conversa¬ tionalist. In these respects, Voltaire followed the strate¬ gies that had guided many writers of the previous century. By creating literary works in the classical genres and by establishing ties with influential individuals, he attained worldly success, garnering a title at the court in 1745 and earning admittance to the French Academy the following year. At the same time, Voltaire developed interests in areas that had typically fallen outside the purview of his seventeenth-century predecessors. He spent the years 1726-1728 in London, where he became intimately ac¬ quainted with the language, literature and philosophy of England. After his return to France, in 1734, he pub¬ lished his Philosophical Letters, a series of reflections on the religious, political and intellectual practices of the English. In 1738, he completed his Elements of the Phi¬ losophy of Newton, which helped bring new scientific ideas to the French reading public. He began to write