who has read it? it's probably one of my favorite literary works, however I unfortunately have not had access to anything else by Voltaire though i'd really love to read more. It has been a relatively long time since i've read it, well it was within this past year but still, your mind goes as you age, right? Well. Yeah. Thoughts? I was thinking about it because the lady who critiqued me from Cooper Union read Candide and enjoyed it. I may go to the used book store and pick up some good books tomorrow.

any suggestions by Voltaire? Or anyone in the same vain? vein? whichever one fits correctly.

"we must cultivate our gardens."

vein.

i think you should read some simone de beauvoir.

any work in particular i should look for? i think i'm going to go to this great used book store we have in richmond, tomorrow, since i'm not working like i usually do.

wow it's difficult to not capitalize anything. it sort of bothers me

but i'm too lazy to change it. but i edited this to state that.

the second sex. required feminist philosophical lit. not exactly voltaire-like, but something every woman should read regardless. i think you'd like it.

She also wrote a novel 'The Blood Of Others' which is oh so French, but also pretty good. It's about a tortured love affair during the German occupation. If you want to look a bit deeper it also ask some interesting moral question about violent resistance.

I have it on my shelf right.....THERE!

If you are looking for Enlightenment-era biting and somewhat snarky social criticism, maybe Johnathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels", or his "A Modest Proposal". Other French sarcastic looks at society, "The Persian Letters" by Lord Montesquieu, or perhaps something by Moliere, or Racine. Voltaire also had Essays on England that are supposed to be pretty good, but I've only read excerpts of. "Young Werther" or "Faust" by Goethe, or some of Rousseau might be worthy, but then we begin to enter into Romanticism, the reaction to Voltaire's world of Reason.
Later stuff responding to Enlightenment reason stretches from Charles Dickens - don't ignore him, he is actually quite a wonderful writer, try "Great Expectations" or "Hard Times", to Shelley's "Frankenstein" to Bronte's "Wuthering Heights" (which I personally never liked much actually, but many others cannot seem to live without).

I wanted to read L'Ecole Des Femmes by Moliere but is it written in French or English? I mean, if it's in French like it says it is but there is a good translation I would absolutely love to read it, but I don't know. I don't know any French. I'll look for it today when I go to the book store.

Read Candide for French Lit I, frosh year, if you want French satire, and you can get around the heavy/ponderous style (although the translaions may not be so oppressive), there's no beating Rabelais.

Read Young Werther in german in college, remember veeeery little about it. Drama, some ups and downs, no big revelations.

are you talking about Chop Suey or somewhere else?

Chop Suey. I love that place.

I went, I bought the following:

From a thrift store that has a large selection of books, some shitty, some good:

1984-George Orwell
A Tale of Two Cities- Charles Dickens
Madame Bovary- Gustave Flaubert
Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained- John Milton
Gullivers Travels and Other Writings- Jonathan Swift
A Farewell to Arms- Ernest Hemingway

All 50 cents a piece.

Then, at Chop Suey, I bought:

Tales for Transformation- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (what a long name, Christ)
and
Candide and Other Stores- Voltaire

I own Candide, but this was beautifully bound and I don't know if I can find the other stories featured published outside of this book.

I bought some other books at Goodwill and a thrift store this past week, about 6 or so.. so I have no idea of where to start. I like to buy in the bulk, though, because then I don't have to go shopping for more once I finish reading one.

Goethe reminds me of Goest. This guy I know who spraypaints all over Richmond. He's wanted by the police, i'm so proud.

Maybe he'll be the next Banksy.

Werther as Goethe's Candide? Never really struck me as such...

I wish I read this before I went out today, but I think I have enough literature to tide me over for the next month or so.