When the Baron discovers Candide's love for his daughter Cunegonde, he is kicked out of the castle, where he meets a wide assortment of misfortunes that test his optimism and carry him across the globe. Candide doesn't face normal misery; one woman lost a buttock to feed an army captain. This is advanced misery. You can't make this stuff up. 
 Filled with satire, murder, and a heavy dose of philosophy, Candide is an accessible classic: it's easy reading and it's relatively short, making it a great starting point for people interested in classic works but intimidated by their difficulty and length. The chapters are short and to the point; the few longer ones (such as the El Dorado passage) are chock-full of beauty that strongly opposes the atrocities happening in Europe. 
 The downsides - as a fiction writer and reader, I wanted more character development. Candide is very plot-driven; events move the story forward instead of characters. For this reason, the characters are sort of faceless in my mind, caricatures in, perhaps, the way they need to be in a satire. It's just not to my personal taste. 
 For anyone looking for a good political/social chuckle, Candide is a good read. My edition (Dover Thrift) provided footnotes that explained some of the historical information; I found these very helpful.