Collected together here in “Candide and Other Stories” we have a collection of philosophical fiction by 18th century French author Voltaire. In the author’s best known work, “Candide”, we find the story of a man who has lived a sheltered comfortable life, but when he begins to travel the world he witnesses the pervasive hardships of the world, an experience that leads to his ultimate disillusionment with his previously held philosophy. In “Micromegas”, Voltaire crafts an early work of science fiction in which a 450 year old, 120,000 foot tall alien travels the universe ultimately discovering humans and their philosophies on earth. In the third work of this volume we have the story of its titular character, Zadig, an ancient Babylonian philosopher. Fourthly in a work of narrative verse, “What Pleases the Ladies” is the tale of Jean Robert who seeks an answer to the question, “what do women desire?” The fifth story of this collection, “The Huron”, is a tale of a native American who travels across the Atlantic to discover a very different world than his own in Brittany, France. Lastly we find “The White Bull”, a philosophical fable based on the Greek tale of Europa and the bull. This collection follows the translations of William F. Fleming.
