Voltaire

A French author. Voltaire is a pen name; his real name was Francois Marie Arouet.

Brutus

Zaire

La Henriade

assassination of Henry III and struggle of Henry of Navarre to obtain throne

Candide

Satirizes Leibniz, who said this was the best of all possible worlds, as Doctor Pangloss.

Candide is taught “metaphysico-theology-cosmolo-nigology” by Doctor Pangloss while gowing up in the castle Thunder-ten-Tronckh. Then everything bad possible happens to Candide and he still believes. Eventually Candide learns after finding El Dorado that “we must cultivate our garden” and let the world worry about itself.