Zadig/L'Ingenu

Written by the wittiest writer in an age of wits, these two tales are clearly the work of the mind that produced Candide. Voltaire's faith in man's resilience is displayed with immense gaiety, inventive imagination and irreverence for official doctrine. Zadig, written in 1747, is full of vivaciousness and everyone always bounces hopefully up, whatever fate may have done. The humor is less constant in L'Ingénu and there is a mature and satisfying development in Voltaire's thinking on the problem of evil. 191 pages.