Candide
1759 · 336 pages
Voltaire sends an innocent young man taught that this is the best of all possible worlds through war, earthquake, and the Inquisition. The comedy is savage and the optimism does not survive.
★ 8.2
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1750s
1750 – 1759
Showing 4 books from the 1750s
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
1759 · 735 pages
Samuel Johnson pronounced this book already dead. Two hundred and sixty years on, Tristram is still failing to get himself born, derailed by his father's theories and his uncle's toy fortress.
★ 7.3
Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
1755 · 92 pages
The first man to fence a field and say this is mine founded civil society, Rousseau writes, and ruined it. His case against progress split the Enlightenment and still unsettles readers.
★ 7.2
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
1759 · 494 pages
Smith argues that conscience is imagined company: we judge ourselves by picturing an impartial spectator and wanting his approval. The economist famous for self-interest built his moral system on fellow feeling.
★ 6.8