Plot Overview
Candide is the illegitimate nephew of a German baron. He grows up in the baron’s
castle under the tutelage of the scholar Pangloss, who teaches him that this world is
“the best of all possible worlds.” Candide falls in love with the baron’s young daughter,
Cunégonde. The baron catches the two kissing and expels Candide from his home. On
his own for the first time, Candide is soon conscripted into the army of the Bulgars. He
wanders away from camp for a brief walk, and is brutally flogged as a deserter. After
witnessing a horrific battle, he manages to escape and travels to Holland.
In Holland, a kindly Anabaptist named Jacques takes Candide in. Candide runs into a
deformed beggar and discovers that it is Pangloss. Pangloss explains that he has
contracted syphilis and that Cunégonde and her family have all been brutally murdered
by the Bulgar army. Nonetheless, he maintains his optimistic outlook. Jacques takes
Pangloss in as well. The three travel to Lisbon together, but before they arrive their ship
runs into a storm and Jacques is drowned. Candide and Pangloss arrive in Lisbon to
find it destroyed by an earthquake and under the control of the Inquisition. Pangloss is
soon hanged as a heretic, and Candide is flogged for listening with approval to
Pangloss’s philosophy. After his beating, an old woman dresses Candide’s wounds and
then, to his astonishment, takes him to Cunégonde. Cunégonde explains that though
the Bulgars killed the rest of her family, she was merely raped and then captured by a
captain, who sold her to a Jew named Don Isaachar. At present, she is a sex slave
jointly owned by Don Isaachar and the Grand Inquisitor of Lisbon. Each of Cunégonde’s
two owners arrive in turn as she and Candide are talking, and Candide kills them both.
Terrified, Candide, the old woman, and Cunégonde flee and board a ship bound for
South America. During their journey, the old woman relates her own story. She was
born the Pope’s daughter but has suffered a litany of misfortunes that include rape,
enslavement, and cannibalism.
Candide and Cunégonde plan to marry, but as soon as they arrive in Buenos Aires, the
governor, Don Fernando, proposes to Cunégonde. Thinking of her own financial
welfare, she accepts. Authorities looking for the murderer of the Grand Inquisitor arrive
from Portugal in pursuit of Candide. Along with a newly acquired valet named Cacambo,
Candide flees to territory controlled by Jesuits who are revolting against the Spanish
government. After demanding an audience with a Jesuit commander, Candide
discovers that the commander is Cunégonde’s brother, the baron, who also managed to
escape from the Bulgars. Candide announces that he plans to marry Cunégonde, but
the baron insists that his sister will never marry a commoner. Enraged, Candide runs
the baron through with his sword. He and Cacambo escape into the wilderness, where
they narrowly avoid being eaten by a native tribe called the Biglugs.
After traveling for days, Candide and Cacambo find themselves in the land of Eldorado,
where gold and jewels litter the streets. This utopian country has advanced scientific
knowledge, no religious conflict, no court system, and places no value on its plentiful
gold and jewels. But Candide longs to return to Cunégonde, and after a month in
Eldorado he and Cacambo depart with countless invaluable jewels loaded onto swift
pack sheep. When they reach the territory of Surinam, Candide sends Cacambo to
Buenos Aires with instructions to use part of the fortune to purchase Cunégonde from
Don Fernando and then to meet him in Venice. An unscrupulous merchant named
Vanderdendur steals much of Candide’s fortune, dampening his optimism somewhat.
Frustrated, Candide sails off to France with a specially chosen companion, an
unrepentantly pessimistic scholar named Martin. On the way there, he recovers part of
his fortune when a Spanish captain sinks Vanderdendur’s ship. Candide takes this as
proof that there is justice in the world, but Martin staunchly disagrees.
In Paris, Candide and Martin mingle with the social elite. Candide’s fortune attracts a
number of hangers-on, several of whom succeed in filching jewels from him. Candide
and Martin proceed to Venice, where, to Candide’s dismay, Cunégonde and Cacambo
are nowhere to be found. However, they do encounter other colorful individuals there,
including Paquette, the chambermaid-turned-prostitute who gave Pangloss syphilis, and
Count Pococurante, a wealthy Venetian who is hopelessly bored with the cultural
treasures that surround him. Eventually, Cacambo, now a slave of a deposed Turkish
monarch, surfaces. He explains that Cunégonde is in Constantinople, having herself
been enslaved along with the old woman. Martin, Cacambo, and Candide depart for
Turkey, where Candide purchases Cacambo’s freedom.
Candide discovers Pangloss and the baron in a Turkish chain gang. Both have actually
survived their apparent deaths and, after suffering various misfortunes, arrived in
Turkey. Despite everything, Pangloss remains an optimist. An overjoyed Candide
purchases their freedom, and he and his growing retinue go on to find Cunégonde and
the old woman. Cunégonde has grown ugly since Candide last saw her, but he
purchases her freedom anyway. He also buys the old woman’s freedom and purchases
a farm outside of Constantinople. He keeps his longstanding promise to marry
Cunégonde, but only after being forced to send the baron, who still cannot abide his
sister marrying a commoner, back to the chain gang. Candide, Cunégonde, Cacambo,
Pangloss, and the old woman settle into a comfortable life on the farm but soon find
themselves growing bored and quarrelsome. Finally, Candide encounters a farmer who
lives a simple life, works hard, and avoids vice and leisure. Inspired, Candide and his
friends take to cultivating a garden in earnest. All their time and energy goes into the
work, and none is left over for philosophical speculation. At last everyone is fulfilled and
happy.