Managing Oneself: The Key to Success tải xuống LIT miễn phí

Chris Greco greconotgec99d — I read it in ninth grade. I think I should read it again, seeing as my knowledge of the period when it was written has changed a lot. I remember it being far too white for me, even in ninth grade.

Robert örn _obert_rn — ** spoiler alert ** Just a totally ridiculous, absurd, and hilarious book. To explain: This novella is a satire. Now if that doesn't mean much to you, I'll explain further. The whole story is just a twisted version of the world of Voltaire (AKA the Age of Enlightenment in the 1700s). It plays with and makes fun of the absurdities of the age and about human societies and lives in general. It is a completely ridiculous book, so ridiculous and funny that I can't even explain it fully. The whole tone of the book of one of absurdity and there's no possible way it can even be taken seriously if you want to enjoy it. Speaking of which, it is an extremely enjoyable book. It may not make you laugh out loud, but it will sure make you smirk and grin as the ridiculousness of it all slowly engulfs you. My favorite part of the story has to be when Candide stayed in France. Now, before I go on I have to fill you in on a few background info. It is important to note that Voltaire himself is French and...well lets just say he's not a good terms with French society (was as exiled among other things). It was also around the same time of the French Revolution, so everything was kind of wacky in that country. Anyway, now that you have that enlightening information, I shall explain why I liked Candide's stay in France. It was so satirical that it wasn't even funny (well it was, but you know what I mean). Voltaire made fun of practically everyone in high society, what with the pamphlet-monger and the Marchioness. He also made fun of the police force in saying that every foreigner gets arrested and how they can easily get off if they have enough money. But what I like most is when Candide gets sick and when the word spreads that he, an extremely rich man (for Candide was loaded at the time), is ill, people flock to his room and soon he has "a number of intimate friends whom he had never seen." And I just smile and laugh at the greed and the power money causes. And it really just shows you how little everything has changed. And yes, this is totally exaggerated but it still makes some oh so true points. Okay...there is another really good part (not that the rest of the book isn't also really good) that I want to talk about. Its when Candide meets up with this Signor Pococurante, a noble Venetian, and how this man practically has the whole world a his finger tips (he is that rich), but he is not satisfied with anything. (There's this one funny part where he talks about how in Homer's books all the battles are alike, the gods are always interfering but never do anything important, and how Helen, whom is the cause of the Trojan War, is barely in the story. Which by the way is all very true in my opinion). And what this noble shows us is, again, how nothing changes. Which leads me to the illustrations. Practically every version of Candide has different types of illustrations, and I want to comment on the illustrations in my version. All the drawings, while simply gorgeous and rich in detail, are all very....uh...its hard to explain. The only way I can really explain this is by comparing it to Salvador Dali (he did the melted clocks painting), meaning the illustrations are done in the same dream-like, warped reality sort of way. Which is the reason I love them. It all fits perfectly which the satiric theme of the book. To put it in my friend's words: "This book is like a really long personal fanfic...like Dante's Inferno." What she means by that is that the author puts a lot of personal opinions and likes in this story, and I can't help but agree. But that what's make this book original and oh so Voltaire. It has the Voltaire stamp per say. And that's something I've yet to see in a modern novel. For the record, I feel like I'm obligated to say something about Pangloss's philosophy that plays an important roll throughout the book. It states that everything (including all the suffering in the world) is for the best, that its all some part of a greater cosmic scheme and how everything is put forth towards a greater good...or something like that. Right now, I just would like to say how completely and utterly absurd that is (even though people during that time period and before believed that). And Voltaire seems to agree with me. Candide's and other character's farcical journey is basically a response on how that philosophy is wrong. And in the end, Candide (really Voltaire) comes up with a correct philosophy that I can't help but agree with. It states that how everything may be crap, but you have to find the one thing in life that will make you content. It will not come to you. And that I think is something everyone can live by. That's basically it. Again a totally ridiculous, hilarious, absurd, and farcical satire. And I really really liked it. One of the better books I've read in school.

Mohammed Wael _ohammed_na_designer — A lot of the core information in this book is great, but it seems as though he ran out of steam and was being paid by the word. The end of the book should have been seriously pared down because it was very redundant.