Chapter 22 Voltaire's Candide

Now let’s look at another short story—Voltaire’s Candide.In those few pages there is condensed content that no novel of the same length can match: wit, ironic and mischievous plot, sensible attitude, and a lot of fun.The novel is known to poke fun at the philosophical optimism that prevailed at a time when the Lisbon earthquake, with its many casualties and losses, unnerved celebrities who always thought they lived in the best possible world.No one has ever thought more vividly and delicately than Voltaire. He used cynical humor to ridicule many things that people agree should be taken seriously, such as religion, government, love, ambition and loyalty, so as to tell people that to Tolerance requires you to cultivate your own garden diligently, that is to say, to do what you should do diligently and unrelentingly.