Micromegas
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~8,000 words · 38 passages
Cite this work
- APAVoltaire. (n.d.). Micromegas. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/voltaire/micromegas
- MLAVoltaire. "Micromegas." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/voltaire/micromegas.
- ChicagoVoltaire. Micromegas. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/voltaire/micromegas.
What it is about
Micromégas: an inhabitant of Sirius, twenty-three miles tall, visits Earth and cannot find the humans, so small are they.
Context and history
Science fiction from 1752, and probably the first in French literature. The joke is serious: seen from outside, our importance is a matter of scale. When the giants finally find the humans and hear them arguing metaphysics, they burst out laughing. Voltaire wrote in French: this is an old English translation, in the public domain. For citation, the original.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
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← Back to Voltaire