Saturday, April 30, 2011

May 27, 2011 -- Candide by Voltaire

Our next meeting is Friday, May 27, 2011 at 7:00 PM.
Meeting place is Plaza Branch Library, 4801 Main Street Kansas City, MO.
We will be discussing Candide by Voltaire.

Candide is a French satirical novel written in 1759 by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment. Candide is characterized by its sarcastic tone, as well as by its erratic, fantastical and fast-moving plot. A picaresque novel it parodies many adventure and romance clichés, the struggles of which are caricatured in a tone that is mordantly matter-of-fact. Still, the events discussed are often based on historical happenings, such as the Seven Years' War and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. As philosophers of Voltaire's day contended with the problem of evil, so too does Candide in this short novel, albeit more directly and humorously. Voltaire ridicules religion, theologians, governments, armies, philosophies, and philosophers through allegory; most conspicuously, he assaults Leibniz and his optimism.

It’s a short book that can be read in four hours.

We're meeting in the Small Meeting Room at the Plaza Branch Library. That room is located beyond (north of) the front desk and in the first door to the right.