Voltaire Trivia

1. Candide's supremely wise tutor is known by what name?

From Quiz The Candide Quiz: "What Must the Others Be Like?"

Answer: Doctor Pangloss

Doctor Pangloss was based off of the real-life Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, who rationalized that since God is perfect, so are His creations. God must have created the best possible world, since He could not have done anything less. Voltaire thought this reasoning was so ridiculous that he wrote "Candide" just to make fun of it.

From Quiz Voltaire's "Candide" Part III

Answer: He finds out Candide is planning to marry Cunégonde.

The Jesuit is not happy when he hears the news that his sister is with the Governor of Buenos Aires, and suggests to Candide that they rescue her. Candide is grateful, and tells him that he is to marry Cunégonde himself, but the Jesuit is very angry that Candide would be audacious enough to want to marry such a rich and noble woman as Cunégonde when he is nothing. He slaps Candide with the side of his sword, and Candide, in defence, stabs him in the stomach, immediately lamenting afterwards: "I am the mildest man in the world, yet I have already killed three men - and two of them were priests." Afterwards, Candide dresses in the Jesuit's clothes, and gets past the frontier by posing as him.

From Quiz Voltaire's "Candide" Part II

Answer: Have Pangloss and Candide executed at an "auto-da-fé".

An auto-da-fé (also auto-de-fé) refers to the ritual of heretics who had been condemned at a trial repenting publicly. An auto-da-fé itself did not involve the torture or burning at the stake it has come to be known for, as it was a religious ritual. The torture and burning usually happened when those arrested were handed over to secular authorities, though as it has now come to refer to burning at the stake, most representations include the execution as well as the religious side. The auto-da-fé that Candide and Pangloss are involved in is to stop the earthquakes from happening again. Candide is flogged rhythmically to singing, and Pangloss is hanged (Voltaire says that this is an uncommon procedure at an auto-da-fé). The other two men accompanying them, who were chosen to be executed because they had put bacon to the edges of their plates while eating chicken, were burned. Pangloss was chosen because of what he had discussed, and Candide because he had listened to Pangloss with an air of approval!

From Quiz Voltaire's "Candide" Part I

Answer: Westfalen

Westfalen (also Westphalia) is now the German state of Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine Westphalia). Paris is, of course, in France. Perugia is a city in Italy, and Carthage was an important Roman city which is now a tourist attraction and residential area in Tunisia. Candide is the illegitimate son of the sister of Baron Thunder-ten-Tronckh. He is in love with the Baron's daughter, Cunégonde. Voltaire never mentions that they are cousins.

From Quiz The Candide Quiz: "What Must the Others Be Like?"

Answer: They're monkeys who are biting the girls

Candide sees two monkeys chasing young ladies, appearing to attack them. When he shoots the monkeys, the ladies break down crying over the loss of their paramours. It's satire at its finest.

From Quiz Voltaire's "Candide" Part III

Answer: He shoots two monkeys.

Candide and Cacambo, his valet, see two girls being chased by monkeys. The girls are screaming aloud as the monkeys are biting their buttocks. Candide shoots the monkeys dead with his rifle, but Cacambo tells him that he has just killed the girls' lovers!

From Quiz Voltaire's "Candide" Part II

Answer: She is shared between two men.

Pangloss was slightly mistaken when he told Candide of Cunégonde's ordeal - as he said, she was raped and disemboweled by a Bulgarian soldier, but he didn't realize that she did not die. She was taken as a prisoner-of-war by a Bulgarian captain, after her rapist did not salute the captain and was shot upon Cunégonde's body. The captain sold her three months later to a Jew named Don Issachar when he became bankrupt, but Cunégonde denied him her body. She caught the eye of a Grand Inquisitor, who threatened Don Issachar with an auto-da-fé if he did not relinquish Cunégonde to him. They came to the agreement that she, and the house she has been living in, should be shared between them on alternate days of the week.

From Quiz Voltaire's "Candide" Part I

Answer: Having sexual relations with her mother's maid, Paquette.

Cunégonde is very affected by this display of affection, and wishes that she and Candide could be as close. Her mother, the Baroness, weighs about twenty-five stone, and the Baron is one of the most powerful men in all of Westphalia.

From Quiz The Candide Quiz: "What Must the Others Be Like?"

Answer: El Dorado

In El Dorado, all the people are happy and thoughtful. All the streets are paved with gold, and the king tells only funny jokes. Candide wishes he could stay, but he feels he must leave to try and find his young love, who is held captive elsewhere.

From Quiz Voltaire's "Candide" Part II

Answer: Candide

Don Issachar returns to the house first, and threatens Candide with a small dagger. Candide stabs him with a sword he has been concealing underneath his clothes. As Candide, Cunégonde and the old woman try to decide what course of action to take next, the Grand Inquisitor arrives, as it is after midnight, and therefore, his day with Cunégonde. Before he can do anything, Candide also stabs him with the sword.

From Quiz Voltaire's "Candide" Part I

Answer: He is drafted into the Bulgarian army.

On his first day with the army he receives thirty strokes of the cane. On the second day, he receives twenty, and on the third day, only ten. The title page of the 1759 edition reads "Candide, ou L'Optimisme, traduit de l'allemand de Mr. le Docteur Ralph" - English "Candide, or optimism, translated from the German of Doctor Ralph". This is generally thought to be Voltaire's way of the authorities not being able to blame him for the story, although he did in fact write it.

From Quiz The Candide Quiz: "What Must the Others Be Like?"

Answer: She survives

Though she is thought to be dead for several chapters, Cunegonde is eventually rediscovered alive. When asked how she could possibly still be alive, Cunegonde points out that "people survive such things".

From Quiz Voltaire's "Candide" Part IV

Answer: They are kings

The kings are, in the order in which they talk to Candide: Achmet III, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire; Ivan VI of Russia (the dates for Ivan's birth and death in the footnote of my book do differ from this king's, but I am fairly positive that this is who is meant, for the facts about his life that Voltaire mentions correspond to Ivan VI); Charles III of England, also known as Bonnie Prince Charlie; Augustus III of Poland; Stanislaw I of Poland (who immediately preceded Augustus III); Theodore of Corsica. They have all encountered misfortunes and lost their thrones. The other kings, upon hearing Theodore's story, all feel sorry for him and give him some sequins which he could use to buy things. Candide gives him a diamond worth two thousand sequins - the kings are aghast that this man, whom none of them know, can afford to give Theodore much more than they can. When they ask Candide if he is a king, he replies "No, sir, and I do not wish to be". The date accuracy is off here, for Admiral Byng died in 1756, while Achmet III died twenty years before, in 1736, so there's no way that Candide and Martin could possibly have conversed with him a couple of months after witnessing Admiral Byng's execution.

From Quiz Voltaire's "Candide" Part III

Answer: El Dorado & Eldorado

Cacambo is bewildered by the closed off city, where things are so different from what they are used to - the residents do not care for the piles of jewels that cover the streets, and though they believe in a God, they do not feel a need to pray to him, for they have everything they could possibly want. After a month, Candide tires of being in the land of perfection, as he does not have Cunégonde by his side. However, it is very difficult to leave El Dorado - it takes their engineers a fortnight to make the machine to launch them out of the city!

From Quiz Voltaire's "Candide" Part II

Answer: Escape on three of the Grand Inquisitor's horses.

It is the old woman who suggests they escape on the Andalusian horses. By the time they have covered thirty miles without stopping and are staying at an inn, the bodies are discovered. The Inquisitor is given a fine burial, and Issachar's body is thrown on a dunghill!

From Quiz The Candide Quiz: "What Must the Others Be Like?"

Answer: The priests try to hang him instead of burning him

Although they are supposed to burn Pangloss at the stake, the Portuguese Inquisition decides to hang him instead. And guess what? People survive such things. There are three characters in the novel who return from seemingly certain death: the Baron, Pangloss, and Cunegonde.

From Quiz Voltaire's "Candide" Part IV

Answer: Constantinople

Four Serene Highnesses join the table just as Candide is leaving, but he does not care anymore, for he has become wistful and wants nothing more than to see Cunégonde again.

From Quiz Voltaire's "Candide" Part II

Answer: Troops are sailing there to sort out a problem with the Jesuits there.

They sell one of their horses in order to obtain the money. During the voyage, Candide is sure that this New World will be the "best of all possible worlds" that Pangloss talked about. Cunégonde is afraid, having gone through so much suffering, that she has lost all hope. The old woman comments that Cunégonde has not suffered half as much as she. Cunégonde laughs and replies, "My good dame, unless you have been ravished by two Bulgarians - stabbed in the stomach twice over - seen two of your castles demolished, two mothers and two fathers having their throats cut, and two lovers flogged at an auto-da-fé - I do not see how you can claim to have endured twice as much misery as I have." But she soon has to eat her words.

From Quiz Voltaire's "Candide" Part I

Answer: Anabaptist

Anabaptism was a sector of Christianity, whose followers had rejected conventional Christian practises - taking oaths, wearing wedding rings, and participating in civil government. Jacques comes to Candide's aid after the latter has a chamberpot thrown over his head by the wife of an orator who asked Candide whether the Pope was anti-Christ. Candide's hesitance to answer caused the wife to become angry.

From Quiz The Candide Quiz: "What Must the Others Be Like?"

Answer: encourage the others

This execution was based on real-life Admiral John Byng, who was court-martialled and executed in 1757. Byng was convicted of not doing his best, and executed by firing squad. Voltaire saw such punishments as a warning to the admirals who were still alive... a message that it was better to die in combat rather than be executed in disgrace.

From Quiz Voltaire's "Candide" Part IV

Answer: Pangloss and the Baron

Candide does not realize it is actually them at first, but seeing them causes him to lament Pangloss' death and the Baron's murder, and they turn around when they hear their names spoken. The Baron has been cured of his stab wound, Pangloss has survived the hanging, but both have been arrested for inappropriate conduct, both misunderstandings. Pangloss still holds onto his optimism.

From Quiz Voltaire's "Candide" Part II

Answer: She is the daughter of a pope and princess.

She is the daughter of Pope Urban X (a fictional pope) and the Princess of Palestrina. At the age of fourteen, she is betrothed to a prince, but his jealous mistress kills him by poisoning him. The princess and her mother were traveling with maids to an estate away from the castle to recover from this, but they are captured and sold to Morocco as slaves. She is raped several times on the voyage. When they arrive in Morocco, they are caught up in a battle, during which the young Princess witnesses her mother and maids torn apart by four men, one holding each limb.

From Quiz The Candide Quiz: "What Must the Others Be Like?"

Answer: Buttock

Soldiers are about to eat the woman, when a religious leader commutes the cannibalism to one buttock only. The old woman's horrible life also includes several other cases of cannibalism, rape, slavery, and eunuchs. This all seems worse when you consider that the old woman was once the beautiful daughter of the Pope.

From Quiz Voltaire's "Candide" Part I

Answer: She has been raped and disemboweled by Bulgarian soldiers and is now dead.

Pangloss tells him that they smashed her father's skull as he tried to save her, and cut her mother, the Baroness, to pieces. He says her brother received the same fate as she. Candide is devastated by this news, as he loved Cunégonde and had intended to marry her.

From Quiz The Candide Quiz: "What Must the Others Be Like?"

Answer: Kissing Cunegonde

Cunegonde's family never approves of Candide. Even after the young man has rescued Cunegonde and braved impossible odds, he still ends up stabbing, and apparently killing, her brother over his refusal to let Cunegonde marry someone of lesser class. Candide is a pretty prolific killer by the end of the novel, but he never feels good about it.

From Quiz Voltaire's "Candide" Part IV

Answer: A dervish

The dervish dismisses their questions, exclaiming "Is it any business of yours?", and slams his door in their faces! Later they hear the news that two Viziers and the Grand Mufti have been strangled. Paquette and Friar Giroflée have joined them by the time they visit the dervish; they quarreled, then separated, then reunited, then were arrested, then escaped! Phew! Giroflée has become a Turk, as he always said he would.

From Quiz Voltaire's "Candide" Part III

Answer: Manichaeism

Manichaeism (or Manicheism) is the belief that the world is struggling between light and dark, and that, as human history goes on, the light will gradually be removed, back to the World of Light from where it came. In Martin's words, "God has handed [the world] over - excepting always El Dorado - to some malignant being". He does not notice anything good in the world - a stark contrast to what Pangloss has taught Candide: that this world is "the best of all possible worlds". Martin and Candide, on the ship to Bordeaux, argue most of the way, because of their conflicting beliefs.

From Quiz Voltaire's "Candide" Part I

Answer: That it is "the best of all possible worlds".

The subtitle of the story might have given this one away. Pangloss is an Optimist. This philosophy comes from Gottfried Leibniz, who was also a mathematician and the co-founder of calculus along with Sir Isaac Newton. Leibniz believed that God is benevolent and that everything that happens does so out of necessity to maintain this world as "the best of all possible worlds". The story of Candide focuses on him trying to believe Pangloss' teachings, despite the horrors that he witnesses.

From Quiz Voltaire's "Candide" Part II

Answer: To marry Cunégonde.

The Governor thinks that Cunégonde is "the most beautiful thing he had ever seen". He inquires of Candide, now a captain, whether she is his wife. Candide cannot bring himself to say that she is his wife, or even his sister, since she is not, but he admits that they are planning to be married. As soon as the Governor and Cunégonde are alone, however, he proposes to her! She asks for a quarter of a hour to mull it over, during which the old woman reassures her that marrying such a rich man would be great for her, especially considering the hardships she has gone through. The thief of Cunégonde's jewels is discovered - a Franciscan friar. He has been executed, as a jeweller recognized the jewels as belonging to the Grand Inquisitor. Before his death, the friar made the story of Candide's murdering of the Grand Inquisitor and their flight known, and the authorities have reached Buenos Aires to arrest the Grand Inquisitor's killer!

From Quiz Voltaire's "Candide" Part I

Answer: He himself falls overboard when he saves a sailor from drowning.

There is a big storm, and Jacques falls overboard, and the sailor does nothing to save him. Candide nearly jumps into the water to save him, but is stopped by Pangloss. Voltaire's father wanted him to become a lawyer.

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