Story summary

Candideのあらすじ

著者： Voltaire

読了8分
8 parts
音声は近日公開

A gentle young man learns optimism from his tutor, then watches the world undermine those lessons.

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Candideの概要

要約：読むのに8 minかかります

読書時間: 約2 h 15 min1 h 50 min fast, 2 h 45 min slow
所要時間: 32,600語31 chapters
ページ数: 99ページ150 in large print
ライブラリ内の難易度: 標準 longer sentences, everyday words
初版刊行年: 1759by Voltaire

Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). 古典を読むのにかかる時間 · 更新日 22 October 2026

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Candide in short

A boy raised on one comfortable idea, that everything is for the best, is thrown out of his castle and sent from war to earthquake to Inquisition, and finds his beloved only to lose her. What you keep is a way of reading both smooth theories and bleak ones with suspicion. Pangloss explains away every horror, and Martin sees nothing but horror, and neither is much help to the person bleeding in the road.

What Candide is about

What happens to a young man who has been taught that this is the best of all possible worlds, and who is then kicked out of his home, flogged, shipwrecked and nearly burned?

Voltaire, the French writer and thinker, published Candide in 1759, a few years after the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 shook Europe's faith that everything works out for good. You meet the tutor Pangloss, the valet Cacambo, the gloomy scholar Martin, and Cunegonde, the girl Candide seeks.

対象読者. You will enjoy this book if you like sharp, funny stories that race across continents, or if big questions about suffering and happiness catch your interest.

The story in 8 parts

Key idea 1 · free to read
A tutor teaches that everything is for the best
The story opens in a castle in Westphalia, a region of Germany, owned by the Baron of Thunder-ten-Tronckh. A young man with gentle manners lives there. His judgment is sound but his mind is simple, which is why people call him Candide. The servants think he is the son of the Baron's sister and a decent neighbor who could prove only seventy-one quarterings, the marks of noble descent. That was too few for the family.
Voltaire makes the castle's grandeur a joke. It counts as powerful because it has windows as well as a gate.
The household oracle is the tutor Pangloss, a professor of metaphysico-theologico-cosmolo-nigology, a grand name that means very little. He teaches that nothing happens without a cause and that this is the best of all possible worlds. Candide believes every word.
Then Cunegonde, the Baron's daughter, spots Pangloss in the bushes giving a private lesson in experimental natural philosophy to a chambermaid. Inspired, she tries a little cause and effect herself. Behind a screen she drops her handkerchief, Candide picks it up, and their lips meet. The Baron sees it and kicks Candide out of paradise.
A neat theory is easy to believe until real life pushes back.
2
War and disaster test the best of worlds
Driven from the castle, Candide sleeps in a snowy field and wanders to a town.
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3
Cunegonde lives, and Candide becomes a killer
An old woman leads the battered Candide to a hidden house, feeds him, treats his wounds, and brings him to a veiled lady.
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4
Two strange lands show cruelty and a golden country
Candide flees with Cacambo, his valet, who has been choirboy, sailor, monk, peddler and soldier, and who knows how to stay calm.
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5
Wealth melts away and a gloomy companion appears
The sheep die on the road until only two reach Surinam, a Dutch colony.
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6
Paris, London and Venice teach him about people
In Paris, Candide falls ill, and doctors and pious visitors crowd around because he wears a big diamond.
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7
Optimism and gloom both fail the test
The book sets two ways of thinking against each other.
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8
Fast tales and dry irony carry the argument
Voltaire tells his story fast.
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Read all 8 key ideas now

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Characters, plot and themes

Main characters

Candide A gentle, trusting young man from Westphalia who believes his tutor's teachings and loves Cunegonde, and wants to find her again wherever fate throws him.
Pangloss The tutor and self-styled philosopher who insists that this is the best of all possible worlds and explains away every disaster with cheerful logic.
Cunegonde The Baron's daughter, rosy and spirited, who loves Candide and survives terrible captivity while longing to be reunited with him.
Cacambo Candide's quick-thinking, loyal valet, born in Tucuman, who knows South America and gets his master out of danger again and again.
Martin A poor scholar and Manichean who thinks evil rules the world, and who becomes Candide's gloomy but honest travelling companion.
The old woman Cunegonde's servant, who tells a harsh life story, gives practical advice, and keeps faith with the two lovers through every setback.
The Baron's son Cunegonde's brother, a proud young Jesuit in Paraguay who prizes noble descent and will not accept Candide as a husband for his sister.

How it ends (spoiler)

Candide at last finds Cunegonde, now ugly and sharp-tempered, and keeps his promise to marry her, after his friends deal with her proud brother. Pangloss and the Baron, both thought dead, turn up alive as galley slaves. The money melts away, and the little group settles on a small farm near Constantinople, bored and quarrelsome. A kind old Turk tells them that work keeps away boredom, vice and need. Candide ends the long debates by saying they must cultivate their garden.

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『Candide』についての質問

What is Candide about?

Candide follows a gentle young man who is taught that this is the best of all possible worlds, then meets war, earthquake, slavery and betrayal across several continents, while searching for the woman he loves.

Who is Pangloss in Candide?

Pangloss is Candide's tutor, a self-important professor who argues that everything happens for the best. His cheerful explanations of horrors make him the book's main target, and Voltaire uses him to poke fun at optimistic philosophy.

What is El Dorado in Candide?

El Dorado is a hidden country in South America where gold and jewels are common pebbles, no one goes to prison, and everyone shares a simple faith. Candide visits it briefly and then chooses to leave.

When was Candide written and is it a true story?

Voltaire published Candide in 1759. It is a fictional satire, but it refers to real events, such as the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, wars between European powers, and the Inquisition, so the invented adventures sit against real history.

Is Candide easy to read?

Candide is short, with about thirty brief chapters and a quick pace. Each scene is a small adventure with clear characters, plain events, and plenty of humor, so the story is easy to follow from start to finish.

この版を引用します

Voltaire. Candide. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/candide.

Voltaire. (2026). Candide. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/candide (Original work published 1759)

Voltaire. Candide. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/candide.

@book{voltaire2026candide,
  author = {Voltaire},
  title = {Candide},
  publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/candide},
  note = {First published 1759}
}