Is My Candide, ou l'Optimisme a First Edition?

The points of issue

• Geneva: Gabriel Cramer, 1759
• The true first is the 299-page edition — Barber's 299G (Morize 59a
• Bengesco 1434) — issued anonymously as 'Candide, ou l'Optimisme, traduit de l'Allemand de Mr. le Docteur Ralph'
• Voltaire's name appears nowhere
• Text points: p
• 103, line 4 reads 'que ce ce fut', the doubled word being corrected to 'que ce fut' in later editions; p

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Read the number line — the lowest number is the printing. A line including 1 is a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2). Paste it into the decoder.
3. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
4. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

Seventeen editions dated 1759 are recorded, and the date on the title page settles nothing — edition identification is the whole question, exactly as the census says. The true first is Cramer's Geneva 299-page printing, established by the cumulative analyses of Ira Wade, Giles Barber and Stephen Weissman. Voltaire arranged near-simultaneous issue elsewhere and the counterfeiters imitated Cramer's page layout, spelling and ornaments as closely as they could, so identification runs on the text points and ornament placement above, never on the imprint; regional technical characteristics are what allow specialists to localise each pirate printer. The one edition collected alongside the Geneva first is the London printing (Nourse, 1759), which appeared in May, months after the Geneva printing of mid-January: it preserves an earlier state of the text — set from copy sent to London before Voltaire's last-minute revisions — but is bibliographically later, and is correctly described as the first London edition and an earlier textual state, not as the first edition. The Paris, Lyon and Amsterdam editions dated 1759 are piracies.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

No book-club issue exists for a 1759 imprint. The tells are: the sixteen other 1759-dated editions, which imitate Cramer's layout but fail the text points — 'que ce fut' already corrected at p. 103, 'précipitamment' at p. 125, the title ornament not repeated at pp. 193 and 266; the many later eighteenth-century collected-works printings, in which Candide appears as part of Voltaire's Œuvres rather than separately; and modern facsimiles and illustrated 'first thus' editions of the twentieth century, which are new editions of the text and are identifiable by machine-made paper, modern casing and a modern publisher's imprint.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of Candide, ou l'Optimisme a first edition?

A first edition of Candide, ou l'Optimisme by Voltaire (Gabriel Cramer, Geneva) is identified by: Geneva: Gabriel Cramer, 1759.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A number line whose lowest number is 1 marks a first printing (Random House ends at 2). Seventeen editions dated 1759 are recorded, and the date on the title page settles nothing — edition identification is the whole question, exactly as the census says.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

No book-club issue exists for a 1759 imprint. The tells are: the sixteen other 1759-dated editions, which imitate Cramer's layout but fail the text points — 'que ce fut' already corrected at p. 103, 'précipitamment' at p. 125, the title ornament not repeated at pp. 193 and 266; the many later eighteenth-century collected-works printings, in which Candide appears as part of Voltaire's Œuvres rather than separately; and modern facsimiles and illustrated 'first thus' editions of the twentieth centu

I have a first edition of Candide, ou l'Optimisme — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.