The spirit of satire flourished during the Enlightenment, and its crowning achievement was Voltaire's "Candide". It follows the worldwide encounters - with shipwrecks, earthquakes, pestilence and human insanity - of its hero and his absurd tutor, Dr Pangloss.

The spirit of satire flourished during the Enlightenment, and its crowning achievement was Voltaire's "Candide". It follows the worldwide encounters - with shipwrecks, earthquakes, pestilence and human insanity - of its hero and his absurd tutor, Dr Pangloss.