British Council British Council Visual Arts

This is one of 14 illustrations the artist drew to accompany Voltaire's satirical novel, first published in 1759. The young Candide has been taught by his tutor Pangloss that everything is for the best in the best of all worlds. He finds by experience that evil rules. He is driven from his castle because he loves Cunégonde. He encounters the evils of war, the Lisbon earthquake, the persecutions of the Inquisition, slavery in America and violence everywhere except in an inaccessible paradise, Eldorado. He has made some friends, and marrying Cunégonde, he settles with them and cultivates his garden, following the advice of a Turkish philosopher