Voltaire "Candide"

Voltaire "Candide, or Optimism" (French: Candide, ou l'Optimisme) - 1759

For the Classics Spin #35, we received #2 and this was my novel.

An interesting take on the Age of Enlightenment.

Candide is a young guy who lives in Germany. He falls in love with a girl but is prevented from marrying her because of her parents. He learns the philosophy "All is for the Best" and travels around the world with this belief.

He probably encounters as many troubles as Homer's Odysseus in the "Odyssey" and solves them almost with the same vigour.

The novel promises to be funny and indeed it is. I have laughed quite a few times during the reading. How can a book be funny and philosophical at the same time? I'm not surprised Voltaire is still such a renowned author even more than two centuries later. I am really happy #2 was pulled for this challenge because I really enjoyed the story.

This novel reminded me a little of Eichendorff's "Life of a Good For Nothing", although it should be the other way around since this one was written earlier. Other than the German novel, I could see more philosophy in this book.

From the back cover:

"Candide tells of the hilarious adventures of the naïve Candide, who doggedly believes that 'all is for the best' even when faced with injustice, suffering, and despair. Controversial and entertaining, Candide is a book that is 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.'"

Basti, Abel & van Helsing, Jan "Hitler in Argentina"

Basti, Abel & van Helsing, Jan "Hitler in Argentina" (German: Hitler überlebte in Argentinien) - 2011

A great and interesting book, whether you believe the authors or not. According to their research, Hitler survived the end of the far and fled to Argentina.

There is a lot to learn about World War II and about South America (and the connection between the two, no matter how much you read, there is always more. That is the impression I have. Even though I read a lot of books, both fiction and non-fiction about this topic (look here), there is something new in every book I read about it. This one was probably the most different one from all the others, the authors try to prove the assumption that Hitler survived the war and lived in Argentina for many many years. I remember hearing the rumours when I was a little child, and they have never stopped.

If this subject interests you, try to find a copy. The research is highly interesting.

Even though I found the English title of this book, I have not been able to find it from one of the online booksellers. This is what I found in English in one of the descriptions. You can find more information about the publications here.

See more comments on my ThrowbackThursday post in 2025.

About Abel Basti:

"Basti claims that Hitler has fled to Argentina after world war two.
 
He also was the coordinator of several expeditions near the Argentinean sea coast, with the goal of finding submarines that were used by the German Kriegsmarine."