ABSTRACT
This is an example from Candide, his most famous conte philosophique, first published in 1759. One is immediately struck by how closely this text resembles literary prose of today: the morphological and syntactic usage of written Modern French is in its essentials established and the style reflects the classical ideal of clarity of expression. In the tale, Voltaire, using such techniques as wit and irony, understatement and exaggeration, satirizes the optimism of Leibniz and Jean-Jacques Rousseau which appeared hollow in the wake of such events as the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. The extract is from chapter 18 and recounts what Candide and Cacambo saw in the land of Eldorado.
