Published by Club des Editeurs in 1960. Condition: Very Good. Exemplaire: 2711. Originally on our shelf at Yvon Lambert. The hardcover is wrapped in a material that shines and changes between blue and pink. Looking for an alternative description of this material we found: 'couverture tissé bleu rose', wrapped in a woven blue and pink blanket. Beautiful.
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“I may not agree with what you have to say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” These words were first spoken by Voltaire before the constitution enshrined the principle of free speech. He was famous for his remarkable wit, along with his lifelong advocacy of the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion and the separation of church and state. Regarded as an extremely dynamic and multifaceted free thinker, he played a singular role in defining the Age of Enlightenment. This was not without scandal for the charismatic libertine who often found himself exiled from France for his views. Arguably his most famous work, Candide, is published here in french in the most beautiful edition we have found for a longtime. He questions the popular philosophical view of the time that we “live in the best of all possible worlds” where “all is for the best” (leibruzian theory) and narrates one mans disillusionment with the world and and subsequent realisation that “we must cultivate our garden.” He champions humane, tolerant, progressive politics that protect individual liberty and religious tolerance, which you will be forgiven for reading as a terrifyingly modern problem still facing us all.