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Candide is possibly the funniest book I have ever read. My question is, can anyone recommend either another similar work by Voltaire, or a similar author.

Thanks.

I've never thought the "tend to your garden" ending was that enigmatic, though critics say it is. After all the rollicking disillusionment Candide goes through, the admonition to stay out the big world and tend to your own, seems clean enough.

Anyway, to answer your question, I don't know of anything quite like Candide. If you want to skip back a century and don't mind a little tougher read, a satire by Rabelais, called "Gargantua and Pantagruel" might be fun,

lukebodell wrote:Candide is possibly the funniest book I have ever read. My question is, can anyone recommend either another similar work by Voltaire, or a similar author.

Thanks.

Is it? Well, I have to read it then..

lukebodell wrote:Candide is possibly the funniest book I have ever read. My question is, can anyone recommend either another similar work by Voltaire, or a similar author.

Thanks.

Candide is the only work of Voltaire I have read. I've read the book years ago, it was witty, yes. I think its somewhat the same as The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.

Zadig is probably Voltaire's second most famous book, and is similar in style to Candide. I would suggest Gargantua and Pantagruel too; just know that it's massive and full of fart jokes. You don't necessarily have to read it all. Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde all all about jokes and philosophical humor, too. As is Tom Stoppard, for that matter.

I remember is writing an essay on Candide back in HS. Not familiar with any other works.

Candide is actually one of the books I had to read on High School and couldn't ridicule it afterwards in the mandatory summary in front of the class... great book.

There are a couple of anthologies containing his works and stories by similar writers, "Great Short Stories Of The World" and "The Book Of Fantasy". Also, in 1764 Voltaire wrote "Vampires" but I've not read it.

My favourite book is "Philosophical Dictionary" a non-fiction collection of essays in which Voltaire uses humour to discuss morality, the Church, justice and other social issues still relevant today.

My favourite quote is "Each player must accept the cards life deals him. But once they are in hand, he alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game." Voltaire (1694-1778) French philosopher and author.

Maud Fitch wrote:There are a couple of anthologies containing his works and stories by similar writers, "Great Short Stories Of The World" and "The Book Of Fantasy". Also, in 1764 Voltaire wrote "Vampires" but I've not read it.

My favourite book is "Philosophical Dictionary" a non-fiction collection of essays in which Voltaire uses humour to discuss morality, the Church, justice and other social issues still relevant today.

My favourite quote is "Each player must accept the cards life deals him. But once they are in hand, he alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game." Voltaire (1694-1778) French philosopher and author.

a) Vampires by Voltaire? Need to check that out, thanks for the heads up.

b) That quote is somewhat similar to what Gandalf says in LOTR1 when Frodo thinks how he hates having the Ring:

F: "I wish that the Ring has never come to me. I wish none of this have happened."

G: "So do all who live to see such time, but that is not for them to decide. All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you."

Yes, very similar

I can recommend some other satirical lit, if that's what you're looking for. Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels is another in the mock-epic style, and probably the originator of that genre. If you're a francophile, look into Flaubert's Bouvard and Pecuchet (although that's a very different storyline) and Moliere's The Misanthrope and Tartuffe (two plays, both very funny, and Richard Wilbur's English translation is very good and keeps to the original rhyme). Evelyn Waugh is a British writer, and his Decline and Fall is also very funny and features a young man who isn't really sure what he's doing.

Jonathan Swift has very similar satirical works to Voltaire. One of my favorites of Swift is A Modest Proposal.

A personal favorite satirical novel of mine is Winkie by Clifford Chase