Voltaire · 1759
Voltaire sends Candide through catastrophe after catastrophe, making optimism look increasingly absurd without giving up the need to cultivate a garden.
Niccolò Machiavelli · 1532
J. W. von Goethe · 1774
Guy de Maupassant · 1885
Joseph Conrad · 1899
Fyodor Dostoevsky · 1864