When we think of the Enlightenment, that shining moment when
great minds became aware of their 18th-century selves, one cannot
help but see the comedic story of Candide
as the screenplay for the late 1700’s…
Published in 1759 by the wit of his day, Voltaire, Candide was a sensation from the moment
it came off the presses and hit the bookseller’s stall. Voltaire had a keen sense of promotion in
that he understood that restricting the book’s availability was not the key to
success. No sooner had he presented the
manuscript to the first “exclusive” printer, he was sending a separate
manuscript to London…
By the end of 1759, there were no less than seventeen “first
edition” versions of Candide in
French alone…that doesn’t count the “first editions” in English, German, Dutch
and Italian. By not putting his name on
the work, he added an air of mystery, a caddy move that only fueled to the
book’s popularity. Add to that the
outcry for censorship from both the Church and the crowned heads of Europe, and
you had a firestorm of literary goodness that absolutely everyone, who was
anyone, wanted a page of…
You can read the first English edition here:
J. Nourse was that London printer whom Voltaire sent the second, “covert” manuscript...so now you've been Enlightened…