Let us tend to our garden

François-Marie Arouet published Candide under the pen name Voltaire when he was 65; perhaps at that point he felt he had nothing left to lose. Whatever the backstory, it remains one of the most viciously funny satires ever conceived; its insane, freewheeling plot careens everywhere, kept on track only by the ruthlessness of Voltaire's wit. Simply put, it’s paced like a rocket, and will make you laugh like hell; it will also make you realize that the best comedy sports a pair of fangs.

Voltaire’s work apart from Candide is a bit harder to scrape together. (The Wikipedia entry on Voltaire claims he wrote several volumes of histories and 60 or more plays, in addition to his prose and poetry, but, as of this writing, it also claims that in 1715 he “returned to Paris to be a porn star.”) Surprisingly, much of his work has yet to be published in English; shorter works like Zadig and Micromegas are included in some editions alongside essays, letters and selections from his 1764 Philosophical Dictionary. Penguin’s The Portable Voltaire is probably the most wide-ranging collection of his work in English, but doesn’t include any of his plays or poems; another paperback edition from Signet Classics can help fill in some of the gaps.


Candide’s story has taken many forms over the years; Leonard Bernstein turned it into an operetta in 1956, and Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg collaborated on a parody entitled Candy, published in 1958. English translations of the original French text are a dime a dozen, as well; among the most recent is a Modern Library edition translated by Peter Constantine, with a foreword by Diane Johnson. The newest, and most highly recommended, comes in the form of a Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition (seen above), sporting a new translation by Theo Cuffe and, best of all, delightful wraparound cover art by Chris Ware. With the long slog of the holiday season imminent, this is a perfect way to get a quick laugh, any time.