VOLTAIRE, Candide, ou L'Optimisme, translated from the Germa - Lot 75

VOLTAIRE, Candide, ou L'Optimisme, translated from the German by Mr. le docteur Ralph. [Paris, Michel Lambert], 1759. In-12, 237-(3)pp. half calf, spine ribbed, cloisonné and decorated with gilt irons including three-lobed and four-lobed motifs; several stained leaves (binding circa 1825). Published the same year as the Geneva original (Bengesco, no. 1437). To ensure the dissemination of his work and thwart censorship, Voltaire commissioned concomitant printings in several French cities. In 1759 alone, 16 editions of this Candide appeared, and even though it was published without an author's name, it was quickly attributed to Voltaire and met with European success. Voltaire's most famous work, Candide "is nourished by all the old writer's culture and experience: for the first time, a Voltairean tale makes extensive use of contemporary events. It is also exceptionally raw, full of low details and trivial expressions, which contrast pleasantly with abstract, often metaphysical developments. This is because it reveals the inadequacy of any intellectual explanation of the world as it is, and therefore seeks to widen the gap between the words of reality and the words of thought. Candide presents itself as an ironic challenge to an optimistic philosophy that justifies the order of the world: Voltaire has long defended this philosophy [...]. There is some debate about the meaning of the conclusion ["Il faut cultiver notre jardin"]: one would like to see it as an invitation to transform the world through technology and the union of good will, but the text suggests instead an invitation to renounce knowledge and thought, and to lock oneself into tasks of immediate profit. The tale, however "philosophical" it may be [...] is first and foremost a tale, expressing temptations rather than positions: the fantasy of the intellect as much as that of the imagination. The relief of the characters, the rapidity of movement, the comicality of the situations and their reversals, the provocative refusal of the touching and moralizing aspects of contemporary novels and their affectation of truth: all these qualities combine, to carry the reader along, with the whirlwind of satirical traits and ideas" (Sylvain Menant, in Dictionnaire Voltaire, Hachette, 1994, p. 30). Bound at the end: [Marconnay (Louis-Olivier de)]. Remercîment de Candide, à Mrde Voltaire. Halle, et se vend à Amsterdam, chez J.H.Schneider, 1760. In-12, 35-(uneblanche)pp.; tear without missing a leaf. First edition. Son of a Protestant emigrant to Berlin, Louis-Olivier de Marconnay (1733-1800) was a high-ranking official in the Prussian Foreign Affairs Department, and held positions in the French Protestant authorities in Berlin.