Discuss classic and award winning ebooks with other readers. Click event title for Zoom link. Contact Lissa at classicsmodern@tscpl.org for help with the Zoom link, Facebook group or questions.
Read the book or the ebook or listen to the audiobook
"Candide" by Voltaire is a satirical masterpiece that shocked Paris upon its publication in 1759. The novel examines an optimistic philosophy of life -- and denounces it as a failure, challenging many of the core assertions of Enlightenment philosophy.
Voltaire tells of the ludicrous adventures and reversals of fortune of the naïve Candide, who doggedly believes that "all is for the best" even when faced with injustice, suffering, and despair. A satirical challenge to the empty optimism prevalent in Voltaire's eighteenth-century society is both controversial and entertaining, but also vitally relevant today in our world pervaded by--as Candide would say--"the mania for insisting that all is well when all is by no means well."
Check for availability of print copies through the library, ebook version is freely available through Project Gutenberg, audiobook versions through Hoopla are around 4.5 hours.
Join the discussion on Zoom
2 pm, Wednesday, April 1, 2026
Join Zoom Meeting: https://tscpl.zoom.us/j/81547936304?pwd=bFaerpNcfiidKyucKwDKoJkfxR4D21.1
Get involved online
Interact with other readers by posting and commenting on the Classics Made Modern Facebook group.
Email classicsmodern@tscpl.org to receive occasional updates about upcoming titles, author background, discussion questions and more!
Check the upcoming schedule for future dates and titles!
AGE GROUP: | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | Virtual | Books/Authors/Writing |
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