Summary

Candide, the illegitimate son of Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh’s sister, is born in Westphalia. Dr. Pangloss, his tutor and a devout follower of Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz, teaches him metaphysico-theologo-cosmolonigology and assures his pupil that this is the best of all possible worlds. Cunegonde, the daughter of the baron, kisses Candide one day behind a screen, whereupon Candide is expelled from the noble baron’s household.

Impressed into the army of the king of Bulgaria, Candide deserts during a battle between the king of Bulgaria and the king of Abares. Later, he is befriended by James the Anabaptist. He also meets his old friend, Dr. Pangloss, now a beggar. James, Pangloss, and Candide start for Lisbon. Their ship is wrecked in a storm off the coast of Portugal. James is drowned, but Candide and Pangloss swim to shore just as an earthquake shakes the city. The rulers of Lisbon, both secular and religious, decide to punish the people whose wickedness brings about the earthquake, and Candide and Pangloss are among the accused. Pangloss is hanged, and Candide is thoroughly whipped.

He is still smarting from his wounds when an old woman accosts Candide and tells him to have courage and to follow her. She leads him to a house where he is fed and clothed. Then Cunegonde appears. Candide is amazed because Pangloss told him that Cunegonde is dead. Cunegonde relates what happened to her since she last saw Candide. She is being kept by a Jew and an Inquisitor, but she holds both men at a distance. Candide kills the Jew and the Inquisitor when they come to see her.

Together with the old woman, Cunegonde and Candide flee to Cadiz, where they are robbed. In despair, they sail for Paraguay, where Candide hopes to enlist in the Spanish army then fighting the rebellious Jesuits. During the voyage, the old woman tells her story. They learn that she is the daughter of Pope Urban X and the princess of Palestrina.

The governor of Buenos Aires develops a great affection for Cunegonde and causes Candide to be accused of having committed robbery while still in Spain. Candide flees with his servant, Cacambo; Cunegonde and the old woman remain behind. When Candide decides to fight for the Jesuits, he learns that the commandant is Cunegonde’s brother. The brother will not hear of his sister’s marrying Candide. They quarrel, and Candide, fearing that he killed the brother, takes to the road with Cacambo once more. Shortly afterward, they are captured by the Oreillons, a tribe of savage Indians, but when Cacambo proves they are not Jesuits, the two are released. They travel on to Eldorado. There life is simple and perfect, but Candide is not happy because he misses Cunegonde.

At last he decides to take some of the useless jeweled pebbles and golden mud of Eldorado and return to Buenos Aires to search for Cunegonde. He and Cacambo start out with a hundred sheep laden with riches, but they lose all but two sheep. When Candide approaches a Dutch merchant and tries to arrange passage to Buenos...