SOURCE: Mason, Hadyn. “Structure and Form.” In Candide: Optimism Demolished, pp. 93-111. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992.

In the following essay, Mason proposes that, contrary to common critical opinion, Voltaire's Candide has a structure corresponding to the general progress of Candide through the story, and suggests that the seeming incoherence of the conte has purpose in formally expressing Voltaire's attack on old notions of “order.”

It is commonly said that Candide is a loosely constructed, episodic work. To be sure, Voltaire was much given to composing the brief article, and there are innumerable examples in his Dictionnaire philosophique (1764) or his polemical works. In other contes, such as Zadig, Micromégas, and L'Ingénu, the chapters are usually quite short. So too in Candide, where at least half the chapters are under 1,000 words or barely exceed that number. Some, like chapters 23 (the Byng episode) and 29 (Candide's discovery of Cunégonde's...