Sunday, May 10, 2015

269 Quiz Answer


Candide is the writer Voltaire’s bitter but humorous criticism of power, wealth, religion and, of all things, optimism.  The story follows the adventures of Candide, a young man in love with a woman of a much higher social class. When their love is thwarted, Candide lives through a series of ludicrously awful events in order to be reunited with his sweetheart.
(Also for Three Word Wednesday and ABC Wednesday: "R" is for "remarkable")

Now, here’s a piercingly sad story if there ever was one.

It’s the remarkable tale of a young fellow who had all kinds of luck, most of it bad.

Funny thing; thanks to a generous noble patron, a baron, he grew up in comfort in a wealthy home and he had a fleshy tutor who had a very positive view of things.  He tried to instill in the young guy a belief that this old world is pretty great and whatever happens is for the best.

For a while that seemed to be true.  Our boy fell in love with the baron’s beautiful daughter and went so far as to kiss her once, but this got him kicked out of the house.

From there things sort of went clean downhill.

He was drafted into the army and got beaten regularly, so he went AWOL.  While he was on the run he saw his old tutor, the whatever-happens-is-for-the-best guy, who now had an STD and was begging in the street.

To top things off, he learned that the love of his life, the baron’s daughter, had been killed by enemy soldiers.

This would have discouraged just about anyone, but the young dude decided to go on.  He went to Portugal, for some reason, and arrived just as a massive earthquake, one of the largest in history, kind of wiped out the entire place.

But it wasn’t all bad.  He learned the good news that his girlfriend had survived the murder attempt; the bad news was that she had become a slave in Turkey.

And you think you have problems.

Anyway, in his peregrinations our boy had managed to accumulate quite a few pesetas, francs, marks and whatever, so he was able to go to Turkey and buy his girl’s freedom.  However, what with all she had been through she was pretty much a wreck.

The remarkable end to their story?  They bought a small property and spent all their time doing farm work; somehow this made them happy.

Please give us the name of the young guy.  (If you want to also give us the name of the girl as well as the name of the author of this incredible story, pray do so.)

The answer will be posted Saturday.  

23 comments:

Altonian said...

Let us glitter and be gay,
And say, indeed,
This can only be the tale of
Candide.

naturgesetz said...

Candide and Cunegonde/
Are the ending happy pair/
Whose story comes to us/
In the writings of Voltaire.

Berowne said...

Altonian and naturgesetz are the first with the right answer.

Doctor FTSE said...

I'm not very optimistic that this might be Candide? By Voltaire. If so, the lady's name is Cunégonde.

jabblog said...

Oh my, I was never any good at quizzes . . .

brudberg said...

This has to be Candide.. and the girl is of course Kunigunda.. (I read it many years ago)

Kathe W. said...

Candide is the name of that poor guy who had to go through hell to capture Cunegonde and this epic tale was written by Voltaire!

Berowne said...

Doc FTSE, brudberg and Kathe W have all stepped up with the correct answer.

The Blog of Bee said...

As I recall, it's possibly Candide and Cunegonde created by Voltaire. I think so!

Berowne said...

The right answer has just arrived from the Blog of Bee.

Kutamun said...

Sisyphus ?

Old Egg said...

This is one of my all time favourite books; Candide by Voltaire with Candide (the hero?), Cunegonde his girlfriend and Pangloss his tutor.

Berowne said...

Old Egg has just checked in with the correct answer.

Reader Wil said...

Well it looks like a Shakespearian drama. I am glad there was a happy end. I love happy ends.
Wil, ABCW
Well I am looking forward to seeing the solution of your quiz!

Berowne said...

Thanks so much, Wil, for your interest.

Berowne said...

From Gattina: No idea who he was, but apparently he never had any luck. Poor Guy... Gattina, ABCW

Jae Rose said...

As usual Berowne my ignorance shines bright however i did try to Google - the funniest response was Dumbledore's army...made me smile so thanks!

Sheilagh Lee said...

I have no idea

rallentanda said...

The over the top story line makes it French. Could be turned into a musical production by an American.

Berowne said...

And indeed it was.

Susan Anderson said...

Shoot, I missed this one. And as a French major, I actually knew it.

;)

Berowne said...

Congrats. As a French major, some day you can become a French lieutenant-Colonel...

Roger Owen Green said...

Ah, I did not know! Working on this week's, which hasn't come to me yet.

 
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