Definition of "ingenu"

Even a casual reader of the philosophic tale will have met, in the array of types on parade-an oft-repeated "naïf" (who was anything but naive), at least one famed "candide," and several "ingénus."

1946 September, Dorothy M. McGhee, “The Conte Philosphique Evolves Its Solitaire”, in PMLA, volume 61, number 3, page 752

Swift, it might be noted, has used this technique, but with "reverse English." Instead of a fine central intelligence, he has set up at the core of his work his favorite ingénu, an "I" who egregiously identifies himself with the very abuses that Swift is attacking.

1951 June, Robert C. Elliott, “Swift's Tale of a Tub: An Essay in Problems of Structure”, in PMLA, volume 66, number 4, page 44

The trouble still lies, as it did in the Happy Valley, in the mental ineptitude and moral weakness of the characters. This is the target throughout the story, as mere ingénu and mere academic split time after time on the rock of reality.

1961 Fall, John M. Aden, “"Rasselas" and "The Vanity of Human Wishes"”, in Criticism, volume 3, number 4, page 300

You seem pleasant and harmless with your dark ingenu eyes and your nice Midwestern manners.

1975, Saul Bellow, Humboldt's Gift, Viking, page 18

And ... he examines ingénus like Oliver Twist and David Copperfield whose lives Dickens renders as patterns of self-growth towards moral health.

1975 Summer, A. Robert Lee, “review of Joseph Gold Charles Dickens: Radical Moralist”, in Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, volume 64, number 254, page 201

The innocent childlike nature of the Ingenu is perhaps his most obvious and charming characteristic and has been much noted... But actual children are rare among the Ingenus ....

1991, George Austin Test, Satire: Spirit and Air, University Press of Florida, page 205

For his novel, Saro-Wiwa draws on the figure of the ingenu in order to satirise the evils and pettiness of war from an apparently naïve perspective, which conceals the biting criticism that prevails throughout the narration.

2003, Juan Francisco Elices Agudo, “The Role of the Ingenu in the Construction of a Postcolonial Anti-War Satire: Ken Saro-Wiwa's Sozaboy”, in Ignacio Miguel Palacios Martínez, María José López Couso, Patricia Fra López, Elena Seoane Posse, editors, Fifty Years of English Studies in Spain (1952-2002): A Commemorative Volume, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, page 565