don't criticise what you don't understand

Had to post a comment in response to some of the others. Candide is not remotely intended to be a "story" that you read for its plot. It is a series of deliberately exaggerated attacks on optimism, personified in Candide's teacher Pangloss. I would say you get the most out of it if you avoid trying to view it as "highbrow". It's not. It's very silly. For us Brits, it is very much more pantomime than Shakespearean. No idea of a US equivalent for panto, but perhaps this is why it seems less popular over the pond. While i was a student at Cambridge Uni, ran across many English students who also didn't like this book, as I think it offended their pretentions of grandeur as it is very easy to read and understand. It was interesting to notice, however, that the genuinely intelligent ones who got 1st class degrees and went on to do PhDs (including the only one with a publishing contract 2 years later) loved this book. (and no I'm not smugly implying that I'm one of them - have a very poor degree in Civil Engineering) For those of you looking for similar cynicism, but in a more realistic and possibly intellectual setting, I thoroughly recommend reading "The Idiot" by Dostoevsky. About a bloke who only tells the truth and behaves honestly, and how he is perceived, therefore "Idiot".