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    Micromegas
    Micromegas
    Micromegas
    Ebook36 pages27 minutes

    Micromegas

    By . Voltaire

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    Micromegas, an inhabitant of one of the planets that orbits Sirius. His home world is 21.6 million times greater in circumference than the Earth. Micromegas stands 23 miles tall. When he is almost 450 years old, approaching the end of his infancy, Micromegas writes a scientific book examining the insects on his planet, which at 30 m are too small to be detected by ordinary microscopes.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherInteractive Media
    Release dateJul 9, 2016
    ISBN9781911495352
    Author

    . Voltaire

    Imprisoned in the Bastille at the age of twenty-three for a criminal libel against the Regent of France, François-Marie Arouet was freed in 1718 with a new name, Voltaire, and the completed manuscript of his first play, Oedipe, which became a huge hit on the Paris stage in the same year. For the rest of his long and dangerously eventful life, this cadaverous genius shone with uninterrupted brilliance as one of the most famous men in the world. Revered, and occasionally reviled, in the royal courts of Europe, his literary outpourings and fearless campaigning against the medieval injustices of church and state in the midst of the ‘Enlightenment’ did much to trigger the French Revolution and to formulate the present notions of democracy. But above all, Voltaire was an observer of the human condition, and his masterpiece Candide stands out as an astonishing testament to his unequalled insight into the way we were and probably always will be.

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    • 3/5
      [Micromegas] - VoltairePublished in 1752 this short novella has now been claimed as the first/one of the first science fiction stories. It is in fact a satire on philosophical thought held at the dawn of the age of enlightenment. Micromegas inhabits a planet orbiting the star Sirius, he is 20,000 feet tall and at 450 years old is still considered a child. He is banished from his planet after publishing a book which was deemed as heresy. He decides to go travelling and arrives on the planet Saturn, where he meets the secretary of the Academy of Saturn, who is a third of his size. They discuss philosophy and decide to explore together other worlds. They arrive on the small planet of earth and discover they are able to walk round it in 36 hours. At first they believe the place is uninhabited until they become aware of a boat on one of the oceans, with the use of microscopes they manage to examine the new species and communicate with them. They soon get onto philosophy and they are not impressed with the ideas of Aristotle, Descartes, Malebranche, Leibnitz Locke, and when they get to Thomas Aquinas and his idea that the universe was made for mankind they fall about laughing.A satire on the insignificance of mankind in the universe and the central theme comes across loud and clear. Voltaire was a wicked satirist (Candide) and gave his imagination free reign to indulge his craft here. I can imagine that Micromegas would have been viewed with disdain by religious leaders, but was in the vanguard of the thinking of the enlightenment movement in the mid eighteenth century. Reading today feels a bit like being excluded from a number of in-jokes, but we get the idea. Now it is a curiosity more than anything else, but the central theme still holds true. Here is the final paragraph;“The Sirian resumed his discussion with the little mites. He spoke to them with great kindness, although in the depths of his heart he was a little angry that the infinitely small had an almost infinitely great pride. He promised to make them a beautiful philosophical book, written very small for their usage, and said that in this book they would see the point of everything. Indeed, he gave them this book before leaving. It was taken to the academy of science in Paris, but when the ancient secretary opened it, he saw nothing but blank pages. "Ah!" he said, "I suspected as much.”3 stars

    Book preview

    Micromegas - . Voltaire

    Voltaire

    Voltaire

    Micromegas

    New Edition

    URBAN ROMANTICS

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    New Edition

    Published by Urban Romantics

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    This Edition

    First published in 2016

    Copyright © 2016 Urban Romantics

    All Rights Reserved.

    ISBN: 9781911495352

    Contents

    PREFACE

    CHAPTER I.

    CHAPTER II.

    CHAPTER III.

    CHAPTER IV.

    CHAPTER V.

    CHAPTER VI.

    CHAPTER VII.

    PREFACE

    Voltaire’s lengthy correspondences do not contain anything that might indicate the period in which Micromegas was published. The engraved title of the edition that I believe to be the original displays no date. Abbot Trublet, in his Biography of Fontenelle, does not hesitate to say that Micromegas is directed against Fontenelle; but does not speak of the date of publication. I have therefore retained that given by the Kehl editions: 1752. However there is an edition carrying the date of 1700. Is this date authentic? I would not make this claim; far from it. I have therefore followed the Kehl editions, in which Micromegas is preceded by this warning:

    This novel can be seen as an imitation of Gulliver’s Travels. It contains many allusions. The dwarf of Saturn is Mr. Fontenelle. Despite his gentleness, his carefulness, his philosophy, all of which should endear him to Mr. Voltaire, he is linked with the enemies of this great man, and appears to share, if not in their hate, at least in their preemptive censures. He was deeply hurt by the role he played in this novel, and perhaps even more so due to the justness, though severe, of the critique; the strong praise given elsewhere in the novel only lends more weight to the rebukes. The words that end this work do not soften the wounds, and the good that is said of the secretary of the academy of Paris does not console Mr. Fontenelle for the ridicule that is permitted to befall the one at the academy of Saturn.

    The notes without signature, and those indicated by letters, are written

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