Novella: Zadig

Overview
Voltaire’s Zadig, or The Book of Fate (1747) is a brisk philosophical tale set in a fantastical ancient Babylon, following a learned, upright young man whose talent for reason and virtue draws him into a chain of misadventures. The work blends satire, fable, and travel narrative to test whether wisdom can coexist with fortune’s caprice. Episodic in form, it pokes at courts, priests, and legal systems while asking how much of human life is governed by Providence and how much by chance or folly.

Plot
Zadig begins as a favored Babylonian notable whose sagacity is exemplified in a celebrated deduction: from minute traces he infers the features of a lost dog and horse and is accused of theft before proving his method. His private life fares worse. Wounded defending his beloved Sémire, he is promptly abandoned; a later marriage to the beautiful Azora collapses when a feigned test reveals her readiness to sacrifice another’s nose to save him and then to betray him. Disillusioned but not embittered, Zadig returns to public life and becomes counselor to King Moabdar, codifying fairer laws and enriching the realm with rational reforms.

At court he endeavors to remain virtuous amidst intrigue, but his respectful admiration for Queen Astarte, coupled with the venom of the envious courtier Arimaze, breeds suspicion. Moabdar’s jealousy is inflamed; Astarte is exiled, and Zadig flees Babylon. Thus begins a circuit through Syria, Arabia, and Egypt, where his talent for equitable judgment and clear reasoning repeatedly rescues strangers and entangles him anew. In Arabia, serving the merchant Setoc, he exposes the absurdity of star-worship and rescues a widow from ritual immolation, challenging superstition with humane calculation and common sense.

One of the tale’s most unsettling interludes comes when Zadig travels with a hermit who commits shocking acts, burning a generous host’s house, drowning a seemingly innocent youth, only to reveal himself as an angel and explain that hidden providential designs justified each deed. The lesson is bitter: partial human vision mistakes the good for evil and the evil for good, yet a larger order may prevail.

Zadig continues to seek Astarte, learning through his faithful friend Cador that she lives. Meanwhile Babylon is thrown into chaos by Moabdar’s madness and death; the restored queen resolves to choose a new king. After feats of arms and wit, Zadig appears poised to claim both throne and beloved, but the vain knight Itobad tries to usurp his achievements by donning the victor’s armor. Through a final series of tests that demand not only prowess but moral discernment, Zadig is recognized, reunited with Astarte, and crowned. He reigns with the moderation and tolerance that his trials have refined.

Themes and Significance
Voltaire uses Zadig’s misfortunes to lampoon arbitrary justice, courtly envy, and priestly fanaticism, contrasting them with empirical inquiry and humane pragmatism. The famous dog-and-horse episode champions observation and inference over authority, anticipating the prestige of scientific method and detective reasoning. The Setoc chapters attack ceremonies that sacrifice people to abstractions, urging utility and compassion as the true measures of piety.

Providence and free will remain in tension. Zadig’s choices matter, the just lawgiver is no puppet, yet the angel’s parable insists that human judgment is narrow. Voltaire resists fatalism by giving his hero agency and a happy ending, but he refuses to flatter certainty. Wisdom, in this tale, consists in acting justly under uncertainty, laughing at pomposity, forgiving injuries, and trusting that limited minds can still improve the world.