Voltaire's "Candide" Part I Trivia Quiz

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.

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.

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.

Answer: Running the gauntlet through the whole regiment.

The punishment is to run the gauntlet thirty-six times. He runs the gauntlet twice, through a regiment of two thousand men - this means four thousand blows to the back, before he begs for mercy and the bullets. They agree and blindfold him, and are about to shoot him when the King of Bulgaria arrives and pardons him.

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.

Answer: He has caught syphilis from the maid he was sleeping with.

Pangloss has the appearance of a beggar when Candide sees him. His eyes are sunken into his head, he is covered in sores, and his nose is partially eaten away. His teeth are also black. Candide does not recognize him at first.

Voltaire does not ever mention Pangloss as having any children.

Voltaire was born François-Marie Arouet. "Voltaire" is an anagram of "Arovet Li", the Latinized form of "Arouet, le jeune" - "Arouet, the young man".

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.

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.

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.

Answer: An earthquake.

This refers to a real-life earthquake, which occurred in 1755. It is also known as the Great Lisbon Earthquake, and happened on All Saints' Day. It was followed by a tsunami and fire.

The sailor who survives the storm is none other than the one whom Jacques saved! Candide is injured in the earthquake, but it is not a serious injury.