A graduate of the Middlesex School in Massachusetts, Matthew “Matt” Kafker studies literature, linguistics, physics, and other subjects as a university student. An avid reader during his free time, Matt Kafker is currently reading Voltaire’s Candide, among other works.
Widely considered to be one of the most important writers of the Enlightenment period in Europe, Voltaire was born in the late 17th century to a prominent family in Paris. A gifted student, he soon began to develop a reputation for his writing skill and his iconoclastic ideas that challenged the political and religious authorities of the day. Throughout his life, he explored the philosophical ideas of the Enlightenment in many essays, stories, and plays, but the short satirical novel Candide has proved to be the most enduring of his works.
The novel traces the adventures of the eponymous character, Candide, as he moves from a place of privileged optimism into the harsh reality of the world, encountering war, disease, and natural disasters along the way. One real-life event that found its way into Candide’s pages was the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755. The earthquake, which registered 9.0 on the Richter scale, killed more than a third of Lisbon’s population and destroyed much of the city.
The event had a major impact on the philosophers and religious thinkers of the day, many of whom saw the earthquake as an argument against a beneficent God. Voltaire was also greatly impacted by the disaster and used it as an episode in Candide’s journey away from boundless optimism.
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