From today’s Writer’s Almanac: It’s the birthday of Voltaire, (books by this author) the man who helped spark the Enlightenment in France, born François-Marie Arouet in Paris (1694). He was a well-known playwright and poet. He spent most of his late life in exile, and he wrote most of his work from England. In the [...]
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Boredom, Vice, and Poverty
Candide posits three evils to which humans are prone: boredom, vice, and poverty. In taking up Pope’s optimism, suggests Candide, one gives into passivity and moral lethargy: it avoids local problems created by random natural occurrences and human apathy.
