Published in 1759, Candide is Voltaire's best-known work, and in it he levels his sharpest criticism against the gentry, their philosophy, the church and the cruelty of this day. Still read and studied today, Candide is one of the defining works of the Enlightenment.

The novel begins with a young man, Candide, who is living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism (or simply "optimism") by his mentor, Professor Pangloss.