前一陣在女兒留的幾箱書裏找書看，找到《安娜卡列尼娜》的同時，看到伏爾泰的《老實人》,書又薄又小，本來想先讀這本薄本的，翻了翻，覺得不吸引人，就隨手擱一邊的，渾然不知這是伏爾泰的經典之作。
伏爾泰是十八世紀法國的哲學家、作家，據說這本小說是伏爾泰用了三天時間寫成的小說，一經出版(1761－1765)，就被翻譯成不同的語言，光英語就有三個不同版本，在這當時是很罕見的。這本小說短而精，一百多頁的故事情節變化快，涵蓋的內容、地域廣，寓意深刻，諷刺了當時的宗教、政治、上層社會、醜惡的人性，人吃人(cannibals)的現象, 並結合當時的自然災害，描繪出一幕幕令人震撼的混沌亂世。我想他作品的成功在於它的深刻性，十八世紀的作品在今天看來依然新鮮光亮，沒有因曆史歲月的變遷而失去其鋒芒。書名《老實人》似乎在向世人傳遞這樣一個信息，人之初，性本善，是這個世界人讓人沉淪、墮落、犯罪。
當然，以我十分有限的曆史、政治、哲學知識，是不敢枉評這本世界名著的，如果說，還想寫點什麽，那就是書中的第十七、十八章，寫到男主人公和其同伴誤闖誤撞，漂到一個烏托邦之地的傳奇故事，讓我猛然間想起東晉陶淵明寫的《桃花源記》,覺得兩者頗有異曲同工之妙，感慨不已。
這兩章故事的梗概是這樣的。話說Candide和他的同伴在遇土匪強盜、經險灘，攀懸崖，彈盡糧絕，馬匹也疲勞致死之後，絕望中坐上了河邊的一隻獨木舟。經過24小時的漂流之後，他們來到一個被萬刃峭壁所阻隔包圍的一塊寬闊的平原上，一個叫El Dorado的國家。那裏遍地是黃金寶石，連馬車都是金光閃閃的，那裏的人們個個美麗光鮮，大地一派鶯歌燕舞，真乃是個流奶和蜜的富庶之國。
172歲的長者接待他們，告訴他們這個國家的來曆和曆史。他們後來還得知，這是個沒有高級法庭，沒有議會，沒有法律訴訟，沒有監獄、甚至沒有意見紛爭的國家。國王的宮殿裏養了五六千人的唱詩班，整日歌舞升平，唱頌感恩之歌。Candide和他的同伴在這樣的花天酒地了吃喝玩樂了一個月，心裏還是惦記著心愛的姑娘Cunegund, 最後向國王要求離開此地。
國王派了三千機械師花了五天時間造了艘結實的船隻，帶他們離開四壁懸崖的高山。臨別時，國王還贈送了一百頭羊，其中二十頭裝載著日常吃的用的， 三十頭盛著奇珍異寶，另外五十頭羊身上掛滿了無數袋的金銀珠寶鑽石。他們這些珠寶富能敵國，比歐洲所以的國王都富有。就這樣，他們離開了這個世外桃源，重新踏上了艱辛的旅程。
最終，這些錢財珠寶撒的撒，花的花，被偷的偷，被騙的騙，100頭羊也死光光。Candide曆經艱辛，終於找到了心上人, 卻發現曾經貌美如花的她，早已花容失色，變得醜陋不堪。
The book Candide was accidentally selected the day when I rummaged for Anna Karenina in my daughter’s boxes of books. It was picked up because of its thinness, a small-sized book with only over 100 pages. When I had both a thick book and a thin one at hand, I chose to read the easy one first, putting aside Anna Karenina. But a few pages of Candide however turned me off, and I switched to Anna Karenina, not realizing what I gave up is Voltaire’s masterpiece.
Not until recently, the book caught my attention again. If a fifteen or sixteen-year-old high school student could read it, why cannot I?? Then in a hot summer weekend, I found myself immersed in the book and finished it in a stretch.
Written in the mid-1800s, the book is a tale of a gentle young man named Candide, whose exile began when he was kicked away from a baron’s castle. On his run for life and later his journey to find his lover Miss Cunegund, he witnessed hunger, poverty, cannibals, religious corruption, rape, violence, theft, injustice, catastrophe from nature as well as from human beings.These astonishingly depressing findings were in a stark contrast to what his tutor Dr. Pangloss had been advocating to him that they lived in “the best of all possible worlds”.
It happened that in the middle of his journey, he and his valet was taken by a canoe to a country called El Dorado, where its “roads were covered, or rather adorned, with carriages formed of glittering materials, in which were men and women of a surprising beauty”. Gold and precious stones, like emerald, can be found everywhere. But when “Candide asked to see High Court of Justice, the Parliament”, he was told that they had none in the country. Neither did they have any prisons, lawsuits or monks. People inside lived in peace and great happiness, but they were not allowed to get out. On top of that, the country, “bounded by a chain of inaccessible mountains” was not open to the outside world. This is undoubtedly a fictional scene and encounter.
Interestingly, this reminds me of a Chinese tale Peach Colony, written by Tao Yuanming, a poetic writer in about 400 AD. Some similarities could be found in the tales that both the fisherman and Candide were carried by the stream into a colony that was isolated from the outside world. More importantly, Tao and Voltaire both expressed their longings for a Utopia, a perfect world for living. But Tao’s tale came way before Voltaire’s, and if Tao’s work was ever translated into different languages, it is likely that our ancestors inspired the world philosophically.
When I read Peach Colony again today, all the passages still sound very familiar, some I could still recite, though not all, thanks much to the High School Chinese teacher, who made us to recite. Looking back, it is so worth it, our every effort to learn our Chinese masterpieces by memory.
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