"Cliff Notes - Candide" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

CICERO (106-43 B.C.), Roman orator and statesman.

HOMER (ninth century B.C.), Greek epic poet, author of the Iliad and the Odyssey.

HORACE (65-8 B.C.), Roman poet, especially famous for his Odes.

JOHN MILTON (1608-1674), English poet, author of Paradise Lost.

RAPHAEL (1483-1520), Italian Renaissance architect and painter.

SENECA (4 B.C.?-A.D. 65), Roman philosopher and essayist.

TORQUATO TASSO (1544-1595), Italian epic poet of the late Renaissance, author of Jerusalem Delivered.

VIRGIL (70-19 B.C.), Latin poet, author of the Aeneid.

^^^^^^^^^^CANDIDE: CHAPTER 26

One evening, on the way to supper, Candide and Martin finally run into Cacambo, who has become a slave to a Turkish sultan. He tells them to be prepared to leave Venice with him after supper. Cacambo informs Candide that Cunegonde is not in Venice but in Constantinople (Istanbul).

Candide and Martin then have dinner with six foreigners, all of whom are dethroned kings come to celebrate the pre-Lenten season (carnival) in Venice. Each tells his story. Candide presents the most destitute of the former kings with a generous gift.

Cacambo's reappearance here is a variation of the mysterious encounters in earlier chapters. Here, the mystery is not the identity of the character; you know almost immediately that the man who approaches Candide is Cacambo. But the sense of mystery is still there: Why is Cacambo a slave? Why is Cunegonde in Constantinople? These questions are left unanswered.

The main focus of this chapter is the encounter with the six dethroned kings, all of whom are real historical figures. As the kings tell their stories of realms lost, often by violence, the idea of fate, or providence, is raised. You know how some of these kings were dethroned--by war or revolution--but you don't know why. If anything, you are left with a sense of the capriciousness of fate. A man can be king one day and in prison the next. These six kings (and the four others who enter the inn as Candide leaves) create an image of an unstable world. Their stories illustrate the same rise and fall of fortunes that are evident in Candide's own story. All, in the words of the Polish king, have had to submit to providence.

NOTE: The scene illustrates how carefully structured Voltaire's seemingly casual, fluid style is. At the beginning, each stranger, to the growing amazement of the others, is addressed as "Your Majesty" by his servant. A comic ritual is created as each servant steps forward to speak to his master. The sixth servant adds a typical Voltairean ironic twist: His "Majesty" is broke, so he plans to abandon him. The ritual continues as each king speaks his piece, ending with the formula "I have come to spend the carnival season at Venice." This time it is the sixth king who adds the twist. The others are deposed but rich; he is on his way to debtors' prison! The repetitive structure of the whole dinner creates a comic effect in what would otherwise have been a series of tragic tales.

^^^^^^^^^^CANDIDE: CHAPTER 27

On their way to Constantinople, Candide and Martin discuss their encounter with the six kings. Candide is once again proclaiming that all is for the best. His surge of optimism, however, is tempered by Cacambo's story. Cacambo tells how, after ransoming Cunegonde, he was robbed of the remainder of the money Candide had given him by a pirate who then sold him and Cunegonde into slavery. Cunegonde is now washing dishes for an impoverished, exiled king. To top it all off, she has grown horribly ugly. Candide is dismayed at this news, but he vows that he must love Cunegonde forever.

In Constantinople, Candide buys Cacambo's freedom. Then he, Martin, and Cacambo set sail for the shores of Propontis (Sea of Marmara). On the galley, they see two familiar faces among the slaves, Pangloss and the young baron. (Their stories will be told in the next chapter.) They return to Constantinople. Candide ransoms the baron and Pangloss, and they once again set sail for Propontis.

At this point in Candide, the momentum begins to build toward the conclusion. Important themes of the novel are referred to: the capriciousness of fate in Cacambo's story, Candide's continued attachment to optimism, the universality of human misery as voiced by Martin.

The major characters of the novel reassemble. Pangloss and the baron are found among the galley slaves. Cacambo, who appeared briefly in Chapter 26, now tells his story. The loose ends of the tale begin to be tied. This process will continue in Chapters 28 and 29.

NOTE: The characters of Pangloss and the baron, when they re-enter the story, are essentially unchanged from what they were when they left it. You can see the lack of change if you compare their behavior when they are ransomed by Candide. Pangloss is effusive, swelling with gratitude. The baron reacts with a cool nod. Yet, both have lived through extraordinary adventures, as you will see in Chapter 28.

^^^^^^^^^^CANDIDE: CHAPTER 28

On the way to Propontis, the baron and Pangloss recount their adventures. After being cured of his wounds, the baron was captured by the Spaniards, jailed briefly in Buenos Aires, and then sent to Constantinople. There, he made the great mistake of bathing naked with a Turkish page boy, another reference to his homosexuality. He was arrested and sent to the galleys--to do hard labor as an oarsman on a galley, or ship.

Pangloss survived his hanging because the executioner, accustomed only to burning his victims, had tied the noose poorly. Pangloss only lost consciousness. His "body" was purchased by a surgeon for dissection. When the surgeon began to dissect him, Pangloss awoke with a scream. After recovering from his shock, the surgeon cured Pangloss and found him a job. The philosopher was in Constantinople, working for a merchant, when he, too, made a great mistake. He put a bouquet of flowers back on the half-exposed breast of a young lady, whence it fell while she was praying. He suffered the same fate as the young baron and ended up chained to the same bench in the galley. The two have been arguing every since about which of them was the greater victim of injustice. Pangloss, however, still clings to his optimist philosophy.

More loose ends are tied in Chapter 28 as the baron and Pangloss explain how they escaped death. On the Turkish galley, the two men argue endlessly and are constantly beaten for talking. Each is so eager to prove his superior claim to misery and injustice that the actual punishment makes no impression on them.

Remember the contest for the most miserable man in Surinam held by Candide? There, the most miserable man was at least to be rewarded by Candide. Here, the argument's pointlessness is brought home vividly, since it brings Pangloss and the baron nothing but further misery.