Description
This is a book of three works by Voltaire: Candide, The Ingenu, and Nanine. Candide is a story of a young man who is turned into an idiot by the Lisbon earthquake and then travels around the world to learn about different cultures. The Ingenu is a story of a young man who is raised by Huron Indians and discovers the ways of European society. Nanine is a three-act comedy about a hero who falls in love with a servant girl and tries to overcome society's prejudice against interracial marriage.
With an Introduction and Notes by James Fowler, Senior Lecturer in French, University of Kent Voltaire is one of the three greatest French writers of the eighteenth century. He fought against religious persecution, bigotry and injustice throughout his life, and is one of the thinkers who prepared the way for the French Revolution. This volume contains: Zadig (1748), the story of a young man who becomes king of Babylon; Candide (1759), Voltaire's most famous tale of all; and (in a new translation by Editor James Fowler) The Ingenu (1767), in which the hero, raised by Huron Indians, discovers the ways of Europe. The heroes of these tales are young, handsome, talented, and naive. All three are animated by Voltaire's sparkling wit, but also by his dark satire of ancient regime society. The volume closes with a new translation of Nanine, Voltaire's three-act comedy which was seen, first as dangerously meritocratic, then as anti-revolutionary. The hero falls in love with a servant girl: but will he overcome society's prejudice and marry her?