Description

In this fresh interpretation of Voltaire’s Candide, known translator Burton Raffel catches the German novel’s irreverent nature and provides a vibrant, modern edition of the 250-year-old wording. Raffel portrays the book within an English idiom that--experienced Voltaire been a twenty-first-century American--he may herself have used. The interpretation is instant and unencumbered, and for the very first time makes Voltaire the satirist an evil enjoyment for English-speaking readers.Candide recounts the remarkably unbelievable journeys, activities, and misfortunes of the small Candide, his precious Cunégonde, and his devoutly positive teacher, Pangloss. Rendered in the beginning with fortune and every possibility for achievement and joy, every conceivable misfortune is nevertheless encountered by the characters.