Sardonic in outlook, it follows the naive protagonist Candide from his first exposure to the precept that "all is for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds," and on through a series of adventures that dramatically disprove that precept even as the protagonist clings to it. The novel satirizes the philosophy of Gottfried Leibniz. Voltaire never openly admitted to having written Candide.
Leonard Bernstein based an operetta (1956) on Voltaire's story. The overture is very popular as an orchestral piece.
See also: panglossianism
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