Although one of the great World classics by one of the great world philosophers, I simply did not care for it, especially because the characters were anything but likeable, which was the point (except for Martin). Voltaire was obviously inspired in Gulliver's travels, but I think he didn't quite reach its genius, which was to send Gulliver to another world in order to criticize the present, thus making the reader figure out who/what he was critiquing in the real world. Voltaire had no such delicacy and blatantly made fun of everyone and everything over and over again, until one just became bored with his constant complaining. Jonathan Swift created another world and an adventure, with an interesting story to make fun of present day society... he entertained the masses at the same time. Voltaire simply made fun of society and intended to create an adventurous life for the simple minded Candide, with no such luck. 
 Come to think of it, Forrest Gump reminds me a bit of Candide, except that Forrest seems to be smarter since he never actually got in real trouble and was actually triumphant and ended up happy... I wonder if the writer of Forrest was 'inspired' by Candide?