Assorted Gardens

An odd novel indeed: Candide.  A book that was boring at times.  A book that was obscure at times.   A book that ended in a way that left me felling…pissed.  Whatever happened to the philosopher’s ambition to show the world his belief in good?  Some would say it never existed. 

How dare he title the last chapter: “conclusion!”  For God’s sake!  If you’re writing a satirical novel, you can’t just suddenly decide to end the book with a “conclusion!”  The hypocrite that is Voltaire already had the nerve to revive main characters time and time again for no apparent reason, now he decided to simply end the novel.   

“The chief executioner of the Holy inquisition was a subdeacon, and a genius at burning people, but he was not accustomed to hanging.” Pg 134

So not only does he put all religious institutions on a skewer throughout the entire novel, now he says the chief is incompetent.  The miraculous feat that occurred to Pangloss wasn’t a miracle.  He was just lucky that the church’s inept and clumsy executioner couldn’t handle burning the victim because it was raining.

All criticism aside, I took notice on the way that Voltaire plays with the concept of gardens in the final pages of the novel.

“’I also know,’ said Candide, ‘that we must go and work in the garden.’

’You are quite right,’ said Pangloss.  ‘When man was placed in the Garden of Eden, he was put there “to dress it and to keep it”, to work, in fact; which proves that man was not born to an easy life.’”  Pg 143

Dr. Pangloss, the wise and majestic Dr. Pangloss believes in the Old Testaments’ creation tale.  Wow.  Where did this come from? Out of context this excerpt is not very relevant to the ending of the book.  But given that Candide and his philosopher were simply talking, with no regard for the creation of man mentioned in the Book of Genesis, this really comes out of the blue.  I think the mentioning of Adam’s garden is a way to make the ending obscure, that is to say, there is room for different interpretations.  Voltaire mentions gardens figuratively, it actually has no relation to Genesis or the Bible.  Furthermore, he means to say that mankind has the hard task of taking care of the garden that is earth.  Not in an environmental way.  On the other hand, the priority is politics and knowledge.

I am angry with the author.  He says it all but doesn’t say anything.  Candide was confusing, yes, alas, so it goes…