Candide
ou l'optimisme, seconde partie (1760)

Pastiche, imitation but also a continuation of Voltaire’s most celebrated tale, Candide, seconde partie, picks up many of the original’s themes. Leibniz, Descartes and Newton are gently mocked; Pascal is accused of trying to make us hate humankind. If it cannot begin to compare with Voltaire’s masterpiece, the tale is nonetheless an amusing and instructive imitation.

Frontispice: gravure sur bois de Howard Simon, 'Candide', Ives Washburn, New York, 1929, ii; Liste des abreviations, vii; Introduction, ix; Fac-simile du frontispice de l'edition de 1760, xxvii; Candide, ou l'optimisme, seconde partie, 1; Notes et commentaires, 51; Dossier critique, 79; Bibliographie selective, 84.

Édouard M. Langille is Professor of French Language and Literature at the St Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia, Canada.