When the novel was published, first in Paris, then in America and finally in England, where it was banned for some time, it immediately attracted the attention of the international press. Received with hostility by official critics for its scandalous content, the book immediately sold in huge numbers, literally stunning readers and winning Southern a reputation that, in the words of one journalist, “will never die.” “Candy” is a satirical parody of Voltaire’s “Candide”, telling about the adventures of another American Lolita, “impossibly sweet” and with “too big a heart to humiliate men,” sexy Candy Kriscian. The book describes Candy's adventures with mystics, sex analysts, doctors and everyone else she meets along the way as she breaks off ties with her family and sets off to explore a hitherto unknown big world.