CANDIDE
(To the Editor of The London Mercury)
Sir,—It is interesting to learn from Mr. Lewis H. Grundy's letter in your issue of December that an English translation of Candide, with the name of M. de Voltaire as the author of the original, was published in London as early as 1759.
According to the preface of the edition of the Académie des Bibliophiles of 1869 Candide first appeared at the beginning of March, 1759, the Journal Encyclopédique of the 15th of that month containing an article on the book, which is headed by the following:
"We do not believe that this tale has a German original. It is attributed to M. de V."
This note produced a reply from Voltaire signed "Démad."
Though the reply is dated April 15th, 1759, it did not appear in the Journal Encyclopédique till July 15th, 1762, with the following note:
"This letter has been mislaid for a long time, and when it reached us we made fruitless efforts to discover the existence of M. Démad, Captain in the Brunswick Regiment."
A facsimile of the title-page of the first edition of 1759 is also given in the edition of 1869, and is the same as that quoted in the Bibliographical Notes of your issue of November.
L'Ingénu was also published anonymously in 1767. The title-page runs as follows:
"L Ingénu, Histoire véritable, tirée des manuscrits du Père Quesnel, à Utrecht, 1767."—Yours, etc.,
Ernest F. Gye.
61 Tregunter Road, S.W.10, December 19th, 1919.