Candide: A Dual-Language Book (Dover Language Guides French)

This is not to say you'll be anywhere near fluent or even capable of constructing a proper sentence when you're done, but it is a very enjoyable way to advance. I had only been studying French for a couple weeks (perhaps 20 hours) when I started reading the book, and although it took me a very long time to get through a rather short story, it was not difficult or frustrating in the least. There is the original French text on the left and English on the right and they line up almost perfectly the whole way through. The translation is very literal and concise, with no liberties taken; except for the order of the sentence, it is more or less word for word. It's a great thrill when you get to the point of reading a whole paragraph without looking at the English side. After this I started reading the dual language edition of Michel de Montaigne's Selected Essays. The translation is no where near as good for the purpose of learning a language. Sadly all the other dual language choices don't seem nearly as interesting.The story itself is a dark humor adult fairy tale. Candide is a kind, caring and naive man surrounded by mostly selfish, self important and brutal characters. He is constantly swindled and beaten by merchants and governments alike. He travels through most of the world searching for his lost love, who clearly is nothing special. The comedy isn't constant but it is extremely witty. Even the few bits of low brow humor are so out of place that it made me laugh out loud. I've wanted to read this book for 20 years, glad I finally did & very happy that I read it in the original French.

I bought this for 2 reasons: For years, I've heard of Candide as a brilliant satire of 18th century France, but had never read it, and I wanted to improve my comprehension of French literature. I first read the French page, and then I read the accompanying English translation to determine if my understanding of the French is correct. When I come across a French word I don't know, I first look it up in my unabridged Larousse, and then I look at the English translation. The translations are quite helpful, especially in pointing out nuances that do not show in dictionary translations of individual words. I've just about finished Candide, and I must admit that I didn't especially enjoy it. I would give the story itself 3 stars, but since I bought it primarily as an aide to improve my understanding of French literature, it excelled in that regard. Thus the 5 stars.

I won’t review the story itself, since I’m sure that’s easy to find elsewhere. I found the translation very helpful and it seemed to be well done. I also found the language to be very approachable for an intermediate French learner. Because of the epic / fairytale style of the story, the vocabulary is relatively simple and the sentences are pretty direct. The length and pace of the story make it so that even if you are reading very slowly (looking up words, etc.) it still feels like the story is moving along, which makes the experience more rewarding. Overall a good read.

Good book and great translation but the cover is not the same as pictured

I used it to read! I liked the author who is one of the greatest in history and the English translation is excellent.Though the book was used, it was in very good form.It took 1.5 months to arrive and I think that's not satisfactory at all.

Magnifique! Formidable! "Used" but in perfect condition (like new) and exactly what I hoped for. I've read "Candide" several times over the years, but only in English (too lazy to translate the French), but with side-by-side translations, I can read this classic book in both languages at the same time and it's really a treat. I heartily recommend dual-language texts as a language learning tool. Very helpful.

generally quite a good translation but with some real oddities, and occasionally English words that would be unfamiliar to almost all readers.

Fantastical imagination; good-evil spectrum; a candid exploration of human life all over the planet, past to present. Three more words.

The very first line of 'Candide' is "Il y avait en Westphalie", which is translated as "There lived in Westphalia". The translated line should read "There was in Westphalia."This tells us that the text is a translation meant for someone just wanting to read 'Candide' in English, rather than a translation which is as close, word for word, to the original as possible, which is what would be most effective for improving one's French.Disappointed, mais il faut cultiver notre jardin.

I bought this for our son who loves to learn other languages and is pretty good with French. He said that he really did not want any birthday presents- so as a joke we filled a large box with heavy stones wrapped in birthday paper and wrapped this book up and put it at the bottom. He was a bit annoyed at first as he thought we had bought him an expensive present, but when he got to the book and unwrapped it, he loved it and was very happy with the duo translation. Its also quite a quirky story (a bit bonkers really) by Voltaire and this added to the joke. As far as I can tell, the translation seems almost perfect. A Perfect gift for someone who has everything.

Wonderful story in which Voltaire pokes a sharp pen into a wide range of targets and well worth five stars in itself. The arrangement of the original french and the english translation is rather irritating, though, with several pages of original alternating with the translated pages which I found annoying. It would have been better to have had the entire french text followed by the entire translation (I presume that technically it would be possible to arrange links to go from a page of the original to the corresponding page of the translation as and when required?). Voltaire's language is not particularly complicated or difficult to follow for a reader with a reasonable standard of French and, for me, the translation was principally of value for the footnotes (which are only in the english sections) which were helpful in understanding some of the allusions and references in the text.

Great to have parallel French and English. I learned a lot of probably outdated French - ne point instead of ne pas, for example. It is a funny story, not always subtle but always dripping with satire, and all the better for being able to access the original language right away.

very amusing story, probably Voltaire's most well know. Dover Dual Language books are very convenient before you feel ready to tackle french only texts. and free MP3 audio is available from Librivox.