Ever been so ticked off by someone’s obviously flawed ideas that you’ve wanted to pen a snarky takedown? Sure, you’d write it under a pseudonym – but you could live with the satisfaction that it was you who took down That Guy.
Voltaire, philosopher of the French Enlightenment, lived this dream. His novella Candide, a satirical takedown of German philosopher Leibniz’s optimism doctrine (the idea that we live in the best of all possible worlds, since this is the one God created), was a massive hit in 1759 and remains a canonical work – spawning, among other things, an operetta which is now on stage at Sydney Opera House after a Melbourne season last year.
