Micromegas is a six-hundred-and-fifty-year-old, thirty-nine-kilometre-high giant from the planet Sirius who can speak a thousand languages and has been expelled from his homeland for writing a heretical tract. On Saturn he befriends the local secretary of the Academy of Sciences - a comparative dwarf, being only two kilometres high - and the two decide to travel to earth together, where they will make startling discoveries about human nature. At once a story-length Bildungsroman and a philosophical tale, 'Micromegas' is a classic Enlightenment text, and is accompanied in this volume by thirteen other pieces - including 'Plato's Dream' and 'Memnon' - all in a new translation by acclaimed French specialist Douglas Parmee.

About the Author
Voltaire (1694-1778) was a French man of letters and a leading figure of the Enlightenment, known for his outspokenness and polemical writings. The philosophical novellas Candide and Zadig are among his most celebrated works.

Reviews
Voltaire will always be regarded as the biggest name of recent literature, and perhaps throughout all the centuries. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
This welcome selection of fourteen of the lesser-known fables and parables comes in a wonderfully loose-limbed and unstuffy translation which shows both Voltaire - and the late Douglas Parmee - on top form. * TLS *



Book Information
ISBN 9781847493798
Author Voltaire
Format Paperback
Page Count 160
Imprint Alma Classics
Publisher Alma Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 158g