Work record

Zadig; or, The Book of Fate

Voltaire

1747 (enlarged 1748) · 18th Century · Satire · French

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Abstract

Written: 1747-1748
Setting: Ancient Babylon, as imagined by Voltaire; Babylon, Egypt and Arabia
Author: Voltaire (trans. an anonymous translator)
Country: France
Language: French
Genre: Philosophical tale
Form: Philosophical tale in short chapters
Recommended: Grades 9–12 (Witty philosophical tale; some mild innuendo; grades 9-12.)

Sage. A wealthy young Babylonian blessed with learning and good temper discovers that merit is a poor shield against fickle lovers, jealous neighbours and foolish officials.

Clues. Reading paw prints and hoofmarks, he pictures a royal spaniel and stallion he never saw, and the magistrates fine him for it.

Power. The monarch makes him judge and vizier; he governs fairly, yet the queen's affection for him rouses the king's fury and he escapes by night.

Exile. Enslaved in the desert, he ends a cruel funeral rite, calms religious quarrels at a merchants' dinner, and is robbed of a victory at a royal tournament.

Angel. A strange hermit who destroys and kills turns out to be a heavenly messenger explaining that good can grow from apparent evil; the wanderer solves the sages' puzzles and gains crown and bride.

Reading. Voltaire's brisk wit makes this an engaging entry into Enlightenment ideas about reason, tolerance and fate. Students can test the hero's methods of inference against modern detective stories and argue about whether the angel's answer to the problem of evil is persuasive or merely convenient for the storyteller.

Main characters

Zadig: A wise and virtuous young Babylonian.
Astarte: The Queen of Babylon, who loves Zadig.
Moabdar: The jealous King of Babylon.
Setoc: An Arab merchant who buys Zadig as a slave.
Jesrad: An angel disguised as a hermit.
Itobad: A vain lord who cheats Zadig in a tournament.

Summary

Zadig, first published in 1747 as Memnon and enlarged under its present title in 1748, is one of Voltaire's philosophical tales, a short satirical romance set in ancient Babylon. This text reproduces an early English translation printed in London for John Brindley in 1749, keeping its old spelling and capital letters. Zadig is a young Babylonian of good birth, wise, modest and generous, who believes he has every reason to be happy. Yet throughout the story his virtues bring him trouble as often as reward. His betrothed, Semira, abandons him after he is wounded defending her; his wife Azora proves faithless when he tests her with a feigned death. Retiring to study nature, he deduces from tracks the appearance of the queen's lost dog and the king's runaway horse, and is fined for knowing too much. An envious neighbour nearly has him executed over a fragment of verse. His wisdom at last brings him to the notice of King Moabdar, who makes him chief judge and then prime minister, and Zadig governs with justice, settling disputes with shrewd tests. But Queen Astarte falls in love with him, the king grows jealous, and Zadig must flee to Egypt. There he kills a man who is beating a woman, Missouf, and is sold as a slave to the Arab merchant Setoc, whom he wins over and whom he persuades to abolish the custom of burning widows. Zadig meets fishermen, brigands and a supper of merchants where men of many nations quarrel over religion until Zadig shows that they worship the same Supreme Being. He finds Astarte again, wins a tournament for the throne only to be cheated by the vain Itobad, and in despair meets a hermit who performs strange and apparently cruel acts, drowning a young man and burning a house. The hermit reveals himself as the angel Jesrad and teaches that Providence brings good out of evil. Zadig answers the riddles of the sages, wins Astarte and becomes king. The tale mocks superstition, envy and injustice while asking whether human life is governed by chance or by Providence.

Virtues in this work

Justice: Zadig judges wisely and protects the innocent as chief judge of Babylon.
Prudence: Zadig reasons carefully from evidence to reach sound conclusions.

Plot or Argument

Misfortunes of the wise
Zadig's virtues and intelligence repeatedly bring him trouble.
Minister of Babylon
He rises to govern justly but must flee the king's jealousy.
Wanderings
As fugitive and slave he reforms customs and reconciles quarreling believers.
Providence
An angelic hermit teaches him about fate, and he wins Astarte and the throne.

Characters

Zadig, hero
A wise and virtuous young Babylonian.
Astarte, queen
The Queen of Babylon, who loves Zadig.
Moabdar, king
The jealous King of Babylon.
Setoc, merchant
An Arab merchant who buys Zadig as a slave.
Jesrad, angel
An angel disguised as a hermit.
Itobad, rival
A vain lord who cheats Zadig in a tournament.

Lessons

Reason against superstition
Zadig uses careful observation and reason against prejudice and folly.
- How does Zadig describe the lost dog and horse?
- Why is he punished for it?
- What is Voltaire mocking?
Related across the library
- The Red and the Black, Lesson: Ambition
  Ambition. Julien plans his life like a campaign, measuring every act against Napoleon.
- The Fall of the Roman Republic: Six Lives, Life of Sulla 36
  Sulla's final illness, described as an infestation of lice and an internal ulcer, ending in a haemorrhage.
- The Fall of the Roman Republic: Six Lives, Life of Pompey 57
  Pompey's serious illness at Naples and Italy-wide celebrations at his recovery.
- The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Part Two, Ch. 5
  Baxter's counsel of hard work, plain diet and cold baths as defenses against temptation and idleness.
- Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, Lesson: Comparison as a way to judge
  Comparison as a way to judge. By setting two lives side by side, Plutarch makes the reader weigh virtues against each other: Aristides’ justice against Cato’s industry, Demosthenes’ eloquence against Cicero’s. Comparison sharpens judgment without flattery.
Just government
As judge and minister Zadig shows how wisdom can serve justice.
- How does Zadig settle disputes?
- What is his maxim about the guilty and the innocent?
- Why does he still fall from power?
Related across the library
- Household Stories (Grimm's Fairy Tales), Lesson: Faithful silence and the power of a promise
  Faithful silence and the power of a promise. The sister in The Six Swans keeps silent for six years, even when she is accused and about to be burned, to free her brothers. The miller's daughter in Rumpelstiltskin learns that a rash promise must be paid. The tales take promises and loyalty very seriously.
- Man's Search for Meaning, Lesson: Meaning is found, not made
  Meaning is found, not made. Logotherapy holds that meaning is not something we invent for ourselves but something that calls to us from outside, in a task, a person, or a situation that must be faced. Frankl turns the question around: life is asking us what we will make of it, and we answer by responsible action.
- The Virginia Declaration of Rights, Lesson: Virtue as the keeper of free government
  Virtue as the keeper of free government. Section XV says no paper guarantee can keep a people free without justice, moderation, temperance, frugality and virtue, and a frequent return to first principles. The Declaration places the safety of its other rights in the character of citizens.
- Capitalism and Freedom, Lesson: Proposals that changed policy
  Proposals that changed policy. Several of the book's proposals, such as school vouchers and a volunteer army, later shaped real debates. Students can trace an idea from argument to law.
- Billy Budd and Other Stories, Lesson: Perception is shaped by prejudice
  Perception is shaped by prejudice. Delano cannot imagine that enslaved Africans could plan and execute a revolt, so he misreads every clue. Benito Cereno shows how ideology blinds well-meaning observers.
Providence
The hermit's lesson asks whether evil can serve a good purpose.
- What does the hermit do?
- How does he explain his actions?
- Is Zadig convinced?
Related across the library
- Robinson Crusoe, Lesson: Counsel refused
  Counsel refused. Crusoe’s first fault is restless contempt for wise limits.
- Man's Search for Meaning, Lesson: Meaning is found, not made
  Meaning is found, not made. Logotherapy holds that meaning is not something we invent for ourselves but something that calls to us from outside, in a task, a person, or a situation that must be faced. Frankl turns the question around: life is asking us what we will make of it, and we answer by responsible action.
- The Bondage of the Will (De Servo Arbitrio), Lesson: Law and gospel
  Law and gospel. Luther answers Erasmus's argument from commands by saying that the law shows what we ought to do and so reveals our inability, while the gospel promises what God does for us in Christ. The distinction is central to all his theology.
- Meno, 72a
  When I ask you for one virtue, you present me with a swarm of them Socrates teases Meno for answering with a list of virtues for each age and station instead of saying what virtue is.
- Man's Search for Meaning, Lesson: Suffering that is not wasted
  Suffering that is not wasted. Frankl does not praise suffering and says avoidable suffering should be removed. But where it cannot be avoided, the way one bears it can become an achievement. His case of the elderly physician grieving his wife, who finds meaning in having spared her the pain of surviving him, shows the idea in a clinical setting.

Context

Voltaire wrote Zadig while living at the court of Lorraine and in Paris, in an age fascinated by Oriental tales such as the Arabian Nights; the story satirizes the French court in Babylonian disguise.

Composition

Published anonymously in 1747 as Memnon and expanded as Zadig in 1748.

Reception

Zadig's reasoning from clues influenced later detective fiction; scientists speak of a Zadig method of inference.

Fate / Free Will Satire Folly Justice Law Faith / Religion Virtue Ethics

Comparisons

Candide: Or Optimism
Voltaire's later tale attacking optimism.
The Pilgrim's Progress
Another allegorical journey through trials.

Quotes

“'tis much more Prudence to acquit two Persons, tho' actually guilty, than to pass Sentence of Condemnation in one that is virtuous and innocent”

— Voltaire, Zadig; or, The Book of Fate, Chapter VI, The Judgments, trans. an anonymous translator (1749).Quote card

The Varieties of Religious Experience, In Filial Gratitude And Love
the history of this world is proof of the subtle virtue of this infusion Such is the Emersonian religion The universe has a divine soul of order which soul is moral being also the soul within the soul of man But whether this soul of the universe be a mere quality like the eye s brilliancy or the skin s softness or whether it be a self conscious life like the eye s seeing or the skin s feeling is a decision that never unmistakably appears in Emerson s pages It quivers on the boundary of these things sometimes lea...
The Varieties of Religious Experience, In Filial Gratitude And Love
from the account of Sir William Hamilton s class room therein contained Hamilton s own lectures were the first philosophic writings I ever forced myself to study and after that I was immersed in Dugald Stewart and Thomas Brown Such juvenile emotions of reverence never get outgrown and I confess that to find my humble self promoted from my native wilderness to be actually for the time an official here and transmuted into a colleague of these illustrious names carries with it a sense of dreamland quite as much as...
Troilus and Criseyde, Troilus And Criseyde
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Faust, Part One, Full Text
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“a Parcel of Insects, or Reptiles, devouring one another on a small Atom of Clay.”

— Voltaire, Zadig; or, The Book of Fate, Chapter VIII, The Thrash'd Wife, trans. an anonymous translator (1749).Quote card

The Age of Alexander: Nine Greek Lives, Source
Project Gutenberg Plutarch's Lives The following are the names of the chapters These names in all capitals are found only once in the text at the start of the chapter THESEUS ROMULUS COMPARISON OF ROMULUS WITH THESEUS LYCURGUS NUMA POMPILIUS COMPARISON OF NUMA WITH LYCURGUS SOLON POPLICOLA COMPARISON OF POPLICOLA WITH SOLON THEMISTOCLES CAMILLUS PERICLES FABIUS COMPARISON OF PERICLES WITH FABIUS ALCIBIADES CORIOLANUS COMPARISON OF ALCIBIADES WITH CORIOLANUS TIMOLEON AEMILIUS PAULUS COMPARISON OF TIMOLEON WITH AE...
Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, Source
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The Ramayana, Book VI, Canto XVIII (Ráma's Speech)
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For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

Zadig's deductions about the dog and the horse.
The envious man's plot.
Zadig's judgments as chief judge.
The supper of the quarrelling believers.
The hermit's actions and explanation.

Key terms and names

Conte philosophique: A short, witty tale used to explore philosophical ideas.
Providence: The belief that God guides events toward good ends.
Satire: Writing that uses humor and irony to expose folly or vice.
Orientalism: European fashion for stories set in an imagined East.

Seminar Questions

Comprehension Why is Zadig fined after describing the queen's dog?
Comprehension Why must Zadig flee Babylon?
Comprehension Who is the hermit really, and what does he do?
Interpretation Why do Zadig's virtues so often bring misfortune?
Interpretation What is Voltaire satirizing in the quarrel at supper?
Big Question Is life ruled by chance, fate or Providence?

Faith Connections

Romans 8:28 (Scripture)
All things work together for good; the hermit makes a similar claim.
Isaiah 55:8 (Scripture)
My thoughts are not your thoughts; the limits of human judgment of Providence.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Human life seems governed by chance and injustice, yet reason, tolerance and a hidden Providence may still lead to good.

Rhetorical device: irony. Zadig is punished for exactly the virtues that should reward him.

Debate: Resolved: that the hermit's lesson justifies the evils Zadig suffers.

Memory Work

'tis much more Prudence to acquit two Persons, tho' actually guilty, than to pass Sentence of Condemnation in one that is virtuous and innocent
Chapter VI, The Judgments, trans. an anonymous translator (1749). Zadig's famous maxim on sparing the innocent.

Writing Prompts

Essay: How does Voltaire use an imaginary Babylon to criticize his own society?

Comparison with Candide: Or Optimism: Compare Zadig with Candide as heroes tested by misfortune.

Creative Prompts

Essay
Does the hermit's explanation of Providence satisfy you?
Fiction
Write a new adventure in which Zadig solves a mystery by reasoning.
Classroom
Act out the trial scenes in The Judgments.