Candide

Name: Candide
Brand: Blackstone Audiobooks
Availability: InStock
Author: Voltaire
ISBN: 9798874818654

Author: Voltaire

Narrator: Martyn Swain

Unabridged: 3 hr 41 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Spoken Realms

Published: 06/04/2024

Categories: Fiction, Classic, Satire

Synopsis

Pangloss would have been right at home in a post-truth, social media world. You can imagine the tweets, “I was hanged and survived #soggyrope,” or, “#nosyphilisnochocolate.” Candide, written in 1759, was never more relevant than today. Blind obeisance and denial, barbarous villainy, greed, and rapacity, are all in a day’s toil for the young Candide. And this is in the best of all possible worlds!

About Voltaire

Voltaire (1694–1778), born François-Marie Arouet, was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher known for his wit, philosophical sport, and defense of civil liberties. He produced works in almost every literary form, including poetry, novels, essays, plays, historical and scientific works, and over two thousand books and pamphlets.

About Martyn Swain

Martyn Swain is a professional audiobook narrator who has also acted on stage and screen, produced and voiced content for current-affairs radio, and tutored in media and presentation skills. A simultaneous interpreter for more than thirty years, interpreting in French and English for senior diplomats and international organizations, he interpreted personally for Nelson Mandela shortly after his release from prison. He also speaks German and Spanish.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Manny on May 19, 2009

- Bonjour, M. Candide! Bienvenue au site Goodreads! Qu'en pensez-vous? - It's OK, we can speak English. Pour encourager les autres, as one might say. - Eh... super! I mean, good! So, what do you make of twenty-first century Britain? - Vraiment sympathique! I am reading of your little scandale with the......more

Goodreads review by Lisa of Troy on August 20, 2024

Surprisingly Funny Candide was written in 1759 so I wasn’t expecting it to be laugh out loud funny, but it was. Have you ever listened to someone who was so dead set in their ideals, but when you actually heard their logic for their ideals that it made absolutely no sense? That is this book. Candide......more

Goodreads review by James on November 25, 2023

Re-read for my Open University studies, 2023. Voltaire's novel introduces the reader to Candide, a wide-eyed, calm and slightly bland young gentleman who resides at Castle Westphalia and who believes in the philosophy that "everything in the world is for the best." One of the first scenes is filled......more

Goodreads review by Fabian on October 26, 2020

Slightly disappointed with the next-Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I took on this classic next IN ONE SITTING. &... WOW! Where has this one been all my life? I adore "Candide" because it is rife with adventure, it is a speedy read, and at the very end you experience a vortex of feelings and NOVEL concepts. It......more

Goodreads review by Vit on June 11, 2021

All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds… And following this sententious wisdom Candide embarks on the quest of his life. Never was anything so gallant, so well accoutred, so brilliant, and so finely disposed as the two armies. The trumpets, fifes, hautboys, drums, and cannon made such h......more

Quotes

“This audio version is an easy-to-swallow rendition in which narrator Martyn Swain seems to be having quite a good time telling the story. He mostly uses accents to portray the many characters, and his range of accents is impressive, including those of various British regions and classes, along with French, German, Dutch, Italian, and Portuguese…This is not a novel in the modern sense, but a rollicking fun story.” AudioFile