VOLTAIRE,.

Candide, ou l'optimisme, traduit de l'allemand de Mr. le Docteur Ralph.

Geneva: Gabriel Cramer , 1959.

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Rare First Edition of Voltaire's Candide

First edition of Voltaire's masterpiece. Duodecimo, bound in contemporary full calf. In very good condition with some browning and toning to the text. Recent research, following Ira Wade, Giles Barber, and Stephen Weissman, has identified this as the true first edition, with the following points: the title ornament of spray, fruit and flowers is repeated at pp. 193 and 266; p. 103, line 4, has the misprint "que ce ce fut" (corrected to "que ce fut" in later editions); p. 125, line 4, has "précisément" (corrected to "précipitamment" in later editions); with Voltaire's revisions on p. 31 eliminating an unnecessary paragraph break, and on p. 41, where several short sentences about the Lisbon earthquake were rewritten. Rare and desirable.

Candide has ranked as one of the world's great satires since its first publication in 1759. It concerns the adventures of the youthful Candide, disciple of Dr. Pangloss, who was himself a disciple of Leibniz. In the course of his travels and adventures in Europe and South America, Candide saw and suffered such misfortune that it was difficult for him to believe this was "the best of all possible worlds" as Dr. Pangloss had assured him. Indeed, it seemed to be quite the opposite. In brilliantly skewering such naïveté, Voltaire mercilessly exposes and satirizes romance, science, philosophy, religion, and government — the ideas and forces that permeate and control the lives of men. After many trials and travails, Candide is reunited with Cunegonde, his sweetheart. He then buys a little farm in Turkey where he and Cunegonde, Dr. Pangloss and others all retire. In the end, Candide decides that the best thing in the world is to cultivate one's own garden.